Slytherin's Three Musketeers
by Pyromagnet
Summary: Severus gets a couple of new friends that make his fourth year at Hogwarts quite interesting.
1. The Come Hither Stare

Title: Slytherin's Three Musketeers

Author: Pyromagnet

Rating: PG 13 (in case of future swearing and some boys kissing boys)

Crossover: BtVS/HP

Disclaimer: Yeah so I don't own Harry Potter or Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Chapter One: The Come Hither Stare

Fourth year Severus Snape sat down at the Slytherin table with the rest of his house and waited for the first years to be led through the door by the newly appointed Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall. Severus let his gaze wander across the table towards the Gryffindor table just in time to duck as a piece of parchment was thrown at his head. Severus glared at the four laughing Gryffindors. Severus was about to flip them the bird when Professor McGonagall came through leading the newest students of Hogwarts.

Severus was about to go back to glaring at the self named Marauders when two of the new students caught his eye. These two were trailing behind the rest of the first years. They looked like they should be fourth years maybe even fifth years, but that's not what caught his eye. The one boy had ripped his pants so that they looked like shorts and he had also ripped off the sleeves of his sweater and the shirt under it as well. He had shoulder length hair gathered in a ponytail. He saw Severus looking at him and he winked at him and nudged the boy walking beside him. This boy was in the normal uniform for the most part except instead of a cloak, he was wearing a leather jacket. He went to move the hair out of eyes and looked pointedly at Severus. Then he brought his other hand to his mouth revealing a cigarette. He took a puff and raised his eyebrow.

"Oy!" He yelled as his cigarette flew from his mouth and into the waiting hand of Professor McGonagall. He exhaled and then sighed. "Fine. It's good stock if you want to try it." The professor tapped the cigarette with her wand and made it disappear. "Or not."

"Boys if you would please, I would like to start the sorting ceremony." Professor McGonagall said tapping her foot and gesturing for the two boys to come join the rest of the children. They looked at each other, shrugged, then walked up to the raised platform.

Professor McGonagall went through the list of children until the only kids left standing were the two boys from before. Once the last kid was sorted the two boys stepped up on the platform and stood on either side of Professor McGonagall.

"We have two new fourth years that will be joining us this year, Professor if you would continue." Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster said standing briefly and gesturing for McGonagall to continue.

"Rupert Giles." McGonagall said. The boy with the ripped clothes sat on the stool and frowned just as the hat went over his head. The hat seemed to frown as well. It took the hat about ten minutes before it shouted, "Slytherin." As Professor McGonagall took off the hat she said, "You can go join your fellow housemates."

"No thanks, I'll wait for Eth." Rupert said standing off to the side.

"Ethan Rayne." McGonagall called. The other boy sat on the stool and crossed his arms with a look of impatience. The hat had barely grazed the boy's head when it yelled, "Slytherin."

"Come on Ripper, let's join our house." Ethan said grabbing Rupert's elbow and pulling him to the Slytherin table. He was pulling Rupert toward the end of the table when he stopped at Rupert's tug. Ethan looked at where they stopped to see the boy who had been staring at them from before. They took the seats across from him and turned toward Professor Dumbledore as he stood once more.

"A few reminders before we start this school year are that students are not allowed in the Forbidden Forest, try and avoid the recently planted Whomping Willow it does not like being touched and will hit you back, and lastly tuck in." Professor Dumbledore sat down and the food appeared on every table.

"My name's Ethan, his is Ripper, and what's yours pretty boy?" Ethan said leering at Severus. Severus looked down and started eating some food. Ethan leaned across the table to grab Severus's chin. "Hey now cutie I asked you a question the least you could do is answer it after you gave us that come hither stare." Ethan tapped his cheek lightly before letting go, "So what do you say, tell us your name handsome?"

"It's umm Severus Snape." Severus said blushing lightly.

"Good to meet you Sev, hold on, Eth look you made him blush." Ripper nudged Ethan, "You would think no one's ever told him how hot he is." Severus's face turned even redder at that comment.

"I think you're right Ripper." Ethan replied. Then he looked down at the food and sneered, "I don't quite think I want to eat any of this stuff today. How about you Ripper, you done eating?"

"Completely. How about you Sev?" Ripper asked.

Severus nodded, "Yes but we can't leave until everyone else is finished and then we have to sing the school song."

"School song?" Ethan said looking perplexed.

"Not bloody likely. Come on Sev I think it's time you showed us our common room." Ripper said standing up. He waited as Ethan crawled under the table, grabbed Severus, and pulled him onto their side of the table. "Alright let's go to the Viper's Den then." He said grabbing Ethan by the elbow and putting an arm around Severus, then he started walking out of the Great Hall.

"Mister Giles, Mister Rayne, and Mister Snape, it is not yet time to leave. Please sit back down." Professor Dumbledore said getting every one's attention.

"Sorry Prof, but as much as I would love to stay and hear this great song, well actually no I wouldn't, I'd rather leave. Have fun singing then, ta." Ethan said as they left the Great Hall.

"Come on luv you heard Ripper lead us to this Viper Pit." Ethan said giving Severus a little push once they were outside the Great Hall. Severus started walking towards their common room but stopped after ten steps. "What's the problem cupcake, forgot the way." Ethan asked.

"Why did you take me with you, just so I could show you where the common room is, you could have just waited for every one else to leave and follow one of the prefects." Severus turned around to face them.

"Come on Sev don't be a pillock, we took you because we like you. You being able to show us where the common room is, is just an added bonus." Ripper said slinging an arm around Severus's shoulders.

"Not to mention being able to watch that arse." Ethan said looking pointedly at Severus's backside.

Severus blushed darkly before replying, "Okay it's this way then. By the way you can look all you like but if I feel one finger on my arse, I'll hex yours off."

"Oh kitten where have you been all my life?" Ethan laughed. Severus smacked Ethan on the arm but gave a slight smile.

They stopped in front of a portrait which asked, "Password boys."

Severus groaned, "We left before any of the prefects told anybody what is was. We need it to get in."

"No we don't." Ripper smirked, "So I suppose that there's a lock and only you control it, am I right."

"You are." The portrait answered slowly.

"Now where would it be?" Ripper muttered to himself. Then he began to examine the painting.

"What's he doing?" Severus asked Ethan.

"Just watch." Ethan nodded his head at Ripper.

"Here we go, here we go." Then Ripper knelt in front of the painting and took something out of his pocket.

"Hey you can't do that!" The painting yelled in outrage.

"Sure I can." Ripper smiled as the door swung inward. Ripper looked back at Severus and laughed at his look of awe. "I just opened a door Sev, it's nothing to drop your jaw about." Ethan shook his head and dragged Severus through the open door. Once Ripper stepped through, the door slammed shut.

"How did you do that?" Severus asked as he started walking up the stairs to his dorm room.

"Practice and some nice muggle lock picks." Ripper shrugged. They entered one of the two doors that said fourth years. "Are we the only ones in this room?"

"Yes. All the other fourth year boys are in the other room." Severus said sitting on the bed his stuff was in front of.

"That means we get you all to ourselves, oh goody." Ethan said lying down on his own bed.

"Bloody hell, I'm doomed." Severus said looking at Ethan.

"Well yeah, but only a little bit." Ripper said before ripping down the curtains around his bed, "Why the hell would I want girly curtains around my bed?"


	2. As first day of classes go

Chapter Two: As first day of classes go…

"Ethan, Ripper, get up." Severus said pulling on his cloak. "Ripper, Ripper." Severus shook Ripper's shoulder and had to duck suddenly as Ripper's arm swung out.

"What do you want Sev?" Ripper asked sitting up.

"Would you mind getting dressed so we can go down and eat?" Severus asked walking over to Ethan's bed. "Let's see, if shaking you causes me to almost get hit, I don't really want to know what happens when I shake Ethan. I think I would rather…" Severus waved his wand at Ethan. Ethan gasped as water fell on his face.

"Oy!" Ethan yelled jumping out of his bed. "I guess this means you want me to get up." Severus nodded.

"Um might I make a slight suggestion, maybe you guys should wear the actual uniform and not your adaptation to the uniform." Severus said nodding at Ethan's leather jacket.

Ethan looked at Ripper who shrugged and pulled on a pair of pants that were not yet ripped. "Okay sweetheart but only because you asked so nicely."

Severus waited in the common room for Ethan and Ripper to finish dressing. When they came down Severus shook his head and sighed, Ripper's pants were not ripped but his sweater sleeves were ripped off at the elbows. Ripper just smirked at Severus, "I couldn't help it, Sev."

"He really can't luv it just makes him feel all manly." Ethan said lighting a cigarette. Severus rolled his eyes and walked out of the common room with Ripper and Ethan following him.

As they walked into the Great Hall, a Slytherin prefect handed them their schedules. They compared them and found that they all had the exact same schedule. Ethan looked around to that there were only about twenty or thirty students who were up and eating. "Darling why are we up so bloody early?"

"I always get up early, it's just a habit." Severus answered sitting down at the end of the Slytherin table. Ripper sat across from Severus while Ethan sat next to Severus. "Ethan could you do me a favor and desist with the cute pet names or could you at least call me Sev or even Snape would be better than those… other names."

Ethan was about to answer when the cigarette in his hand was once again pulled out of his grip. "Mister Rayne you are not allowed to smoke in the Great Hall." Professor McGonagall said transfiguring his cigarette into a quill which she stuck in one of the pockets of her robes. Ethan just rolled his eyes and turned back to face Severus.

Ripper snorted, "You know maybe you shouldn't have offered her one Eth I think she took it personally."

"I rather think you're right, she really doesn't like me." Ethan grabbed some food and put it on his plate.

"Personally I don't see how anyone could like you." Severus muttered before putting a piece of toast in his mouth.

"Oh you're in for it now Sev." Ripper said shaking his head.

"You don't like me?" Ethan said in a whimper before crying out, "Oh my lovely boy doesn't love me what am I to do, I've lost his love." Ethan continued yelling such things while the other students started looking in their direction.

"Ripper how do you make him stop?" Severus asked as Ethan let out a particularly gut wrenching wail.

"I think you have to kiss and make up." Ripper laughed.

"I am not going to kiss him!" Severus hissed and then winced when Ethan yelled,

"He doesn't want to kiss and make up with me, oh my poor heart."

"You are so pathetic." Severus said before lightly kissing Ethan on the forehead, "There, I'm sorry okay."

"Oh I could never stay mad at you, you're just too cute." Ethan said hugging Severus. Severus was attempting to remove himself from Ethan's grip when a voice rang out to say,

"Ahh my eyes, my eyes." Severus finally managed to get Ethan off of him and turned around to see James Potter and Sirius Black with their hands covering their eyes. Remus Lupin was a step behind James and rolling his eyes while Peter Pettigrew was giggling.

Ethan slinked out of his seat and walked up to James and Sirius. He stopped about an inch from them. "What's wrong then boys, is my hotness too much for your eyes to behold or have your eyes simply fallen out of your sockets and you've lost them." As they lowered their hands from their faces Ethan leaned around James to leer at Remus, "Hey cutie, how's it going?"

James shoved Ethan, "Leave Moony alone."

"Didn't know he was your boyfriend, you should label your boy if you're going to be so possessive." Ethan said taking a step back.

"He's not his boyfriend!" Sirius shouted taking a step towards Ethan.

"Oh is he yours than or are you the other one's. Not that I can't see why, you're rather yummy yourself." Ethan smirked looking Sirius up and down.

Just as Sirius swung his fist at Ethan, Ripper stepped in front of him and caught Sirius's fist, "This is no place for a proper brawl. The professors are watching, we wouldn't even get in a good five minutes worth. Maybe sometime later." Ripper let go and turned to Ethan, "Go grab Sev, we need to go get our books."

"Come on hon, now that Ripper's defended me from the big bads we can go." Ethan said grabbing Severus. As they were walking past James, he started to wave his wand to hex them but stopped when Ripper pushed him so hard that he fell on the floor.

"Twenty points from Slytherin for fighting." One of the professors yelled.

Ripper only smirked, "See what I mean can't even get a good five minutes worth." Then he followed Severus and Ethan back to their dorm room to get their books.

"I hate those guys, they're such jerks." Severus said throwing his books in his bag.

"They certainly acted like it and I was only trying to be friendly." Ethan replied.

"So what do we have first?" Ripper asked.

Severus looked at his schedule, "Oh up first, we have double History of Magic with Ravenclaw, then Divinations with Hufflepuff, then Potions with Gryffindor, and lastly Charms with Ravenclaw again." They headed for their first class, "Just so you know all History of Magic is Professor Binns talking about the Goblin Rebellion. The only thing that is even halfway interesting is that the professor is a ghost, but other than that it kind of blows." Severus shrugged and led the way to the History of Magic classroom.

There were a few Ravenclaws all ready in the room, just sitting and talking quietly. Severus sat in a seat about three seats from the front, Ethan sat to the left of him, while Ripper sat in front of him. In the next ten minutes the rest of the students drifted in. Then Professor Binns walked through the wall and started the class.

The Ravenclaws were all either taking notes or reading something else. Most of the Slytherins were asleep with the exception of Severus, Ripper, and a girl named Lydia Zabini.

When Professor Binns was halfway through the class and still talking about the Goblin Rebellions, Ripper had decided he had enough. "You know there is more to history than that Goblin Rebellion. Why don't we study a different part of history, one that doesn't put half of the class to sleep. I mean is it because you were killed during them or something and they bring back memories. History is suppose to be a fun subject but when you go on about the same thing for over an hour, it gets to be very boring. So could we learn about something else now?" All the Ravenclaws had raised their heads and looked hopeful as Professor Binns blinked a couple times.

Then he opened his mouth and continued his lecture on the Goblin Rebellions. The Ravenclaws went back to what they were doing and Ripper banged his head on his desk.

"Well it was a nice try." Lydia whispered and patted Ripper on the back. Ripper's response was to bang his head on the desk again. "If the speech didn't work, I don't think banging your head will either. I'm Lydia Zabini by the way."

Ripper raised his head and grinned, "You can call me Ripper."

"You're the first person who ever asked him to talk about something else. It's nice to know some one else would also like to learn about other events in history." Lydia whispered. "Ripper, who thought up that name?"

"The fool sleeping behind me," Ripper nodded at Ethan, "he said that since I always rip my clothes and everything else instead of using scissors or my wand I should be named for it." Ripper looked at the professor who was still droning on and then back at Lydia, "What class do you have next?"

"Care of Magical Creatures, how about you?" Lydia asked.

"Divinations." Ripper said shrugging. The bell rang and everyone started to collect their books or wake up from their nap. "See you in potions then." Ripper said standing up.

"Yeah see you then Ripper." Lydia winked and walked out of the class room.

"Eth, wake up, class is over." Ripper shook Ethan awake. "It's time for Divinations." Ethan slowly got up and grabbed his bag. Severus was already waiting by the door.

Their Divinations class and lunch passed by quickly with out any mishaps and soon enough they were in their first Potions class with the Gryffindors. As they walked in Lydia smiled and waved at Ripper.

"Who's that Ripper?" Ethan asked as Ripper winked at her.

"That's Lydia Zabini. Ripper and her were talking while you were getting your beauty sleep in History of Magic class." Severus said taking a seat in the front row.

"I'll introduce you, come on. We'll be back in a second Sev." Ripper said grabbing Ethan and pulling him off in Lydia's direction.

"Sure." Severus responded getting out his quill and parchment. Severus glanced behind him to see that Lydia, Ripper, and Ethan were still talking.

"Hey Snivellus," James stood in front of Severus, "missed you this morning at breakfast."

"Yea wanted to give you a welcome back gift." Sirius smirked. At the exact same moment Sirius and James waved their wands and muttered a hex. Severus bent over and groaned as pain laced through his stomach.

"Damn it James Potter you leave him alone!" Lily Evans yelled as she kicked James in the shins.

"Ow, Evans what did you kick me for?" James said rubbing his shin.

"Hey Sev, you okay?" Ripper said walking back over and made a symbol behind Severus's back before gripping his shoulder. Severus gasped as the pain went away and nodded. "Why don't you two sod off." Ripper glared at Sirius and James who backed up a little and then glared as Ethan walked towards Lily.

"Thanks for protecting him." Ethan said as Severus made a little sound of outrage. "Oh shush, sweetie, shining knights come in all sizes, shapes, and flavors. Now what do you say, come on you know it won't hurt you."

Severus rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Thanks Lily."

Lily grinned, "Your welcome Severus."

Ethan bowed to Lily, "And I am Ethan, forever in your debt for helping my handsome friend here." Ethan finished by taking her hand and kissing it.

Lily laughed, "I'll keep that in mind, Ethan." Then she looked over at Sirius and James, who looked like they were about to blow a gasket, and she laughed again, "I think the natives are getting restless. I'm going to sit down but I'll talk you later Ethan, you too Severus." As she started walking back to her seat James went to grab her arm and she evaded him, "Don't touch me, Potter. I'm not your property."

"Alright every one settle down, take your seats, for you two that don't know my name is Professor Samoht." A short man with light blond shaggy hair and blue eyes stated. "For today we will be taking notes on three potions that we will be brewing in the next few days." The rest of the time in class was spent taking notes until the bell rang.

Lily smiled at Ethan and Severus as she walked out of the class room before kicking James again because he tried to block her way out.

"You know I think you just made yourself a friend, Eth." Ripper remarked.

"Well I had to thank her, after all she defended Sev." Ethan shrugged.

"She only did it because she got to kick Potter, well that and in our first year I helped her a little bit in potions, but mostly so she could injure Potter. Half the time I think that's her goal in life, to inflict as much damage as she possibly can on James Potter." Severus said.

"Come on you three, or would you rather stand here discussing the life goals of one Lily Evans instead of going to Charms." Lydia smirked as she leaned against the doorway.

"I don't know, we might have to think about it, I mean life goals are pretty important." Ripper said thoughtfully.

"Especially if they involve Lily Evans." Severus added with a slight smile.

"And her obsession with kicking James Potter." Ethan continued.

Lydia laughed and started walking with the three boys following her. As they entered the Charms class room, Professor Flitwick took Ripper and Ethan aside. "You boys know all your charms up to third year at least."

"Sure, we know really complicated charms like, Accio quill!" Ripper pointed to a quill on one of the kid's desk and the quill flew into his hand.

"We also know how to do the easy ones as well, in a manner of speaking." Ethan pointed at the quill, "Float." The quill rose from Ripper's hand and Professor Flitwick let out a gasp. "We went to Soric the school for wizards and witches in America for a year, they teach you both wandless and wand magic."

"Yes but we can do it the traditional way as well, Eth just likes to show off." Ripper said elbowing Ethan in the stomach.

"Okay boys take a seat. I just wanted to be sure." Professor Flitwick said going to his desk and climbing up the stack of books on his chair. As Ripper sat down one of the Ravenclaws leaned over.

"Hey planning on anymore inspiring speeches today?" The boy asked.

"Why you feel the need to be inspired?" Ripper replied.

"Maybe on Wednesday." He answered.

"Wednesday?" Ripper raised an eyebrow.

"You can inspire me to stay awake in the next History of Magic class." The boy grinned.

"I'll see what I can do." Ripper laughed.

"Mister Giles, Mister Winter pay attention please." Professor Flitwick said waving his wand.

after class

"Ripper, would you stop being such a social butterfly? I want to go eat." Severus complained.

"Fine see you later Cal." Ripper started walking away.

"I'll owl you if I need to be inspired before Wednesday." Cal Winter said before going to talk to Professor Flitwick.

They began walking back to their dorm room so they could put away their books and other school things. "As first day of classes go, that went rather well." Ethan said.

"As opposed to what?" Severus asked.

"Our second year at Durmstrang, they weren't as appreciative of our wandless magic as Professor Flitwick was." Ripper said ambiguously.

"In other words…" Severus waved a hand through the air.

"In other words, they didn't think it was as funny that we could start fires by just saying burn." Ethan shrugged.

"What did you set on fire?" Severus asked unsure whether not he wanted the answer.

"Greenhouse." Ripper paused, "All seven of them."


	3. How we ended up at Hogwarts

Chapter 3: How we ended up at Hogwarts

It was the first weekend and the three Slytherin boys were relaxing by the lake. Ethan was wearing a pair of black jeans with a light green shirt and his leather jacket. Ripper, of course, had ripped blue jeans and an old white tee-shirt that had a bunch of holes in it. Severus however was basically wearing the school uniform except for the tie, sweater, and the cloak because the other two boys insisted that he didn't wear the cloak. Ethan was sitting with his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles while leaning back on his elbows. Ripper was sitting Indian style and playing with a few rocks. Severus was lying on his stomach between the two other boys.

"So how come you guys didn't come to Hogwarts until your fourth year?" Severus asked as he moved to a sitting position. "You are both English aren't you, so why wouldn't you have been sent here?"

"Well…" Ripper threw a couple rocks into the lake and then yelled when the rocks were flung back at him, "Bloody squid, I wasn't aiming for you on purpose." The squid's only response was a splash of water that just barely missed Ripper. "I suppose if you really want to know." Ripper glared at the squid.

"If you're willing to tell me." Severus said.

"Yeah, okay, we'll tell you dumpling." Ethan said after a moment. Severus gave Ethan a look that clearly said I despise you. Ethan only winked, "You should start it off, Ripper."

"My father is a muggle, while my mother was a witch. My father loved my mother, he really doesn't care for me that much. When I was around ten years old my mother died, she was in a boat in the middle of a storm. The boat was too old and the storm too much, she didn't have her wand with her so she drowned." Ripper paused and shook his head, "Anyway my father started dating too soon for my liking but every time I used to say something he'd just smack me upside the head."

"My dad left or died when I was seven. I was never sure which my mum would never tell me. The only thing I know is that one day he was there the next he was gone. He left behind his leather jacket though, it's the only thing I have left of him. My mum wasn't a wand witch, but she was Wiccan so she could do magic. You can see where this is going." Ethan said nodding at Severus.

"Your parents started dating." Severus said.

"Exactly," Ripper sighed "I think they dated for a year before they decided to get married. Except there was two flaws in their plan, Ethan's mother never mentioned him to my father and my father never spoke about me. So you can imagine they were both pretty pissed off when she showed up at my house with Ethan and then she laid eyes on me. For the most part they just ignored us both."

"Except for the one time your dad tried to drown me." Ethan interrupted. "Well not exactly drown, we were on a pier and he pushed me in. Ripper here was the one who pulled me out my own mother didn't even notice." Ethan was sneering at this point.

"After that they locked us in our room for the most part. We only had each other to talk to. Anyway our birthdays are both in November so we actually got our letters four months before our 12th birthday. Ethan's mum wanted us or actually wanted Ethan to learn wandless magic and the only school that teaches that is Soric the American school for witches and wizards. My father just wanted both of us away from him so that he didn't have to deal with us. He really didn't want us to go to magic school but Ethan's mum insisted that Ethan go and my father said fine as long as I went with him." Ripper stated.

"That's how we ended up at Soric." Ethan finished.

"But didn't you say that in your second year you were at Durmstrang, how did you end up there?" Severus asked confused.

"Calm down pumpkin we'll get to that. We didn't exactly fit in, what with us being from England and all, but the school was actually pretty fun and interesting." Ethan grinned, "As it turned out I'm a bit of a natural with the wandless magic since my mum's that type of witch and Ripper, well, he's just a quick study I suppose. We started reading ahead in the books and even stealing the upper year's books."

"Near the end of the year we decided we wanted to summon something, nothing bad or evil, just something brilliant. We researched the books and looked for something that fit the bill. We finally found a demon that fit so we gathered the things necessary and its talisman. However we didn't anticipate Grant." Ripper frowned lost in memory.

"Grant?" Severus wondered.

"A boy in our year, he overheard what we were planning to do and told one of the professors who stopped us right before we finished the ritual summon." Ethan grimaced.

"We were bloody lucky he did too." Ripper glared at Ethan, "The demon we wanted to raise seemed fine enough. What he did was he made everyone in the area it was summon in sing and dance, it was named Sweet. What we didn't know is that the demon caused people to dance until they literally burned out and that he took the ones who summoned him to the underworld as his queen."

"That certainly doesn't sound too pleasant." Then Severus laughed, "Though I'm sure Ethan would have made a perfect queen."

Ethan fluttered his eyelashes, "Only if you were my king sweet cheeks."

Ripper rolled his eyes as Severus smacked Ethan. "Anyway they expelled us for that stunt."

"Wait then how do you guys still have your wands, I thought that when you were expelled your wands were broken." Severus had stopped hitting Ethan and was looking at Ripper.

"As far as I known Hogwarts is the only school that actually breaks wands when students are expelled or maybe it's when they are expelled for doing another student excessive bodily harm to the point of non-repair." Ripper said.

"What in the bloody hell did you just say?" Ethan asked looking perplexed.

"He said that their wand is broken if they kill another kid in lame men's terms." Severus shook his head in disappointment. "But anyway, so you were sent home and then what happened?"

Ripper licked his lips, "Our parents were not too pleased with us."

Ethan snorted, "Don't sugar coat things, Ripper." Ethan looked at Severus, "The first thing my step father did when he learned that we were kicked out was slap us both across the face. Then he split Ripper's lip because he said, 'It's not as if you wanted us at that school anyway.' I thought Ripper was going to hit him back for a second but instead all he said was sorry sir."

"I'd have only gotten punished worse there was no point." Ripper shrugged but his eyes blazed with anger at the memory. "Anyway, my step mother still insisted we learn magic. So they signed us up for the next farthest away magic school which would be Durmstrang."

"Which you said you burned seven greenhouses on your first day, pray tell how did that happen?" Severus leaned his chin on his hand.

"Eth was showing off and missed the target." Ripper said.

"So did you. I only set fire to three of the greenhouses you burned the rest." Ethan retorted. "That year was what we called our pyromaniac year. We were just obsessed with fire, if I recall correctly Ripper actually set a few books on fire because he spoke Latin in front of them."

"It was an accident. Anyway we actually spent most of the year working on a fire illusion. See the thing with fire is when you create it and it is part of your hand, it's like it's an illusion. But once it separates from your hand it becomes real fire with heat and everything." Ripper did a small demonstration as he spoke. "We wanted to keep the illusion fire after it left our hands and by the end of the year we could."

Ethan picked up the story, "It was the last quidditch match, and everybody else was watching that of course. We were casting fire illusion walls around each other behind the quidditch field. We were just messing around where no one could see us because the headmaster had told us if he caught us playing with fire one more time, well he put it we were no longer be welcome at his school."

"So…" Severus drawled.

"Some one happened to look at us, one of the kids I think, I guess he was bored. He started yelling fire and it just went downhill." Ethan shook his head. "The headmaster saw that we were the ones with the fire, despite the fact we immediately put it out and none of the grass was hurt. He was ticked off."

"It wasn't fair, but he didn't care. He expelled us and once again we were sent home with a letter saying we couldn't return in the fall." Ripper rubbed his eyes, "My father was even more ticked off, but this time is was my step mother who slapped us, though they were more girly slaps than anything else. She was screeching at us that we had to learn magic no matter how many times we got kicked out and would we just try for once to be good."

"So where were you sent next?" Severus asked.

"Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. That school absolutely—" Ripper was replying when Severus interrupted.

"Some thing just occurred to me. Durmstrang is in Germany and Beauxbatons is in France, can you both speak German and French fluently?"

"And Latin as well." Ripper answered.

"Latin?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"I was well schooled by my mother and it was very boring being locked in your room for the entire summer. So I taught Eth Latin and he taught me German we both already knew French. So the schools in other countries were not an issue. Now back to Beauxbatons," Ripper started ripping the grass from the ground, "that school is the most horrid, most abominable place in the world not even the devil himself would step in that place."

"That bad, huh?" Severus asked.

"The headmistress hated us for no other reason than we were from England." Ethan said nodding, "She punished us when we didn't do anything. She made us write stupid phrases, clean pots, wash floors, and all kinds of stuff. Then she did something a little after Christmas that we would not put up with."

Ripper started rubbing the back of his hand, "She made a quill that made what you wrote on paper cut itself into your hand. The first time, she made us write for two hours, one hour with each hand. We wanted revenge, so I picked the lock to her office and we trashed it. We broke everything we could, wrote on the walls with paint, and burned her prized plants. We waited in her office till she came back from her meeting so that she would know it was us."

"Good Lord, then what happened?" Severus's eyes were wide.

"She grabbed us by the ears and threw us out of the school. Once she let go of us we set her robes on fire, Lord was she jumping." Ethan laughed.

"Unfortunately that meant we had to go home early." Ripper cut in, "This time my father hit us both a couple time until we fell on the floor in an effort to be less of a target. Neither of them wanted us to go to Hogwarts because my mother went there and my step mother wasn't accepted there. However my step mother just wanted us to learn magic more than she hated Hogwarts so she managed to convince him to let us go here. And that's how we ended up at Hogwarts."

"Wow," Severus breathed, "what are you going to do if you guys get expelled from here?"

"We aren't going to get expelled from here gumdrop," Ethan patted Severus's cheek, "not when someone as cute as you goes here."

"Okay that's it, you need to die." Severus stated calmly, then waited one moment before tackling Ethan. They started rolling around getting closer to the lake and nearly went in except Ripper stopped them in time by shoving them in the other direction. Finally after about five minutes Severus let go of Ethan and stood up.

"Tired of our tumble already lover?" Ethan said out of breath.

"You're never going to call me by my name are you?" Severus glared down at him.

"Not unless I absolutely have to and even then we'll have to see. But please continue to try and persuade me especially if it means we get to roll on the ground together." Ethan winked.

Two voices cried out, "Stupefy!" The three boys fell to the ground stunned.

"Ennervate. Are you guys okay?" Lily leaned over Ethan while Lydia looked at Ripper and Severus.

"What happened?" Ethan moaned.

"I was walking out here to see you guys when I saw Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew walking over to you first. They yelled stupefy, then did something to your hair and ran away because they saw me. Or it could have been Lily yelling that she was going to kick their asses if they didn't get away from you." Lydia smirked at Lily.

"My hair, what did they do to my hair?!" Ethan grabbed his hair and gave a little girly shriek when he saw it was red and gold. Severus's hair was too short for him to see what color it was but since both Ethan's and Ripper's hair was red and gold he assumed his was as well. "This means war, nobody messes with my hair and lives." Ethan got up and started running towards the castle.

Lily giggled before running after him, "Wait, Ethan let me change your hair back to its normal color."

Ethan stopped, "Yeah okay, that's probably a good idea. Hey those pillocks charmed my nails red and gold too." Ethan yelled looking at his nails. "Can you change them back to black as well." Lily nodded and waved her wand.

"Sure you don't want them charmed pink instead, Eth?" Severus joked.

"Hey come here a second." Ethan said walking over to Severus.

"What?" Severus took a small step back as Ethan lunged and kissed Severus on the lips. Severus stumbled backwards and ended on his ass, "Bloody hell, what did you do that for, that's your form of revenge? On second thought that is a kind of good revenge, do that to Potter and Black in front of the whole school, seeing their faces will be revenge enough."

"Black maybe but Potter eww, no way." Ethan made a face.

"I know exactly what you mean about Potter," Lily said making the same face, "the only thing he's good for is kicking in the shins." At which point Lydia and Severus looked at each other and mouthed 'life goal'.


	4. Now you see it, soon you won't

Chapter 4: Now you see it, soon you won't

"It's been a five days since they pulled that prank on us why haven't we gotten back at them yet." Ethan whined. The three boys were sitting in their Muggle Studies class waiting for Professor Marlic to come and start the class. Although they were there rather early so they had a little while to wait. They had Muggle Studies with all the fourth years who decided to take it because there were not that many of them.

"Then think of a worthy prank to pull on them instead of just turning them into demons which we will not be doing." Ripper said.

"Fine." Ethan pouted, then looked at Severus, "What about you, teardrop, do have any ideas of revenge."

"Actually, I might have a little something that I always wanted to do because they've threatened to do it to me a lot of times." Severus sneered, "They threatened to depants me in front of people, I think we should do something on the lines of that."

"You know there's this spell that I picked up in Soric that would make something disappear for a while and then reappear. I could tinker with it so that it'll be set almost on a type of timer." Ripper grinned wolfishly.

"There is one problem, how would we get to their clothes to do that to them?" Severus asked.

The three thought about it for a second and then Ethan smiled, "Fear not dove I know just the ticket." Ethan waved at Lily as she walked into the classroom, "Lily, could you come here for a moment?"

"Sure, Hi Sev, Ripper." Lily said walking over to them. "What do you need me for?"

"We have finally figured a delightful form of revenge to perform on a certain annoying quartet we know but we need some help. Is there any possibility that you would be willing to let us into the Gryffindor dorm so that we can pull off our trick?" Ethan gave her puppy dog eyes.

"Oh I think that can be arranged, how about today during dinner?" Lily replied.

"That would be perfect." Ripper smirked.

The rest of class started to come in, the last person was Remus. When Ethan noticed this he nudged Ripper and Severus. "Watch this, it has an interesting effect." Ethan whispered before throwing back his head and howling. Remus jumped and looked at his hands before noticing Ethan. He glared and walked to his seat slamming his books down.

"Ethan, the bell is there to signal when class starts, that is what the bell is for, not your howling. I will tell you only once more, only dogs, wolves, and coyotes howl as you are none of these animals, you need not imitate their behavior." Professor Marlic said shutting the door behind him. He walked up to his desk and leaned against it. "Today we'll be discussing the telephone and whether or not we have anything better than it."

"Of course we have something better than it." Lucius Malfoy, a Slytherin, snorted.

"The only thing we have close to it is the floo powder and it is in no way better." Kelly Finch, a Hufflepuff, retorted.

"Floo powder is better in that if you have to come over quickly after talking, you can be there in an instant." Melissa Turpin, a Ravenclaw, shrugged. Lucius smirked as if to say so there.

"But that's a matter of transportation; we're discussing the talking aspect of the telephone." Professor Marlic interrupted.

"In floo powder one of the people has to be an uncomfortable position but when using the telephone both people can be sitting on the couch." Connor Fletchley, a Hufflepuff, said after a moment of silence.

"Or they could be doing anything else they needed to be doing while they talked on the telephone." Molly Williams, a Slytherin, added.

"But aren't telephones dangerous, I mean they use electricity, can't they electrocute people?" Patrick Parkinson, another Slytherin, asked in a slightly shaky voice.

All the muggle born started laughing, along with a few pure bloods as well. Professor Marlic shook his head, "I don't think so Patrick."

---------------------------------

"Come on you three, I don't want to chance any one coming back from dinner early." Lily looked back to make sure that Ripper, Ethan, and Severus were following her.

"Dear, do you know that there are Slytherins following you?" The fat lady asked looking concerned.

"Of course I do, fiddle faddle." Lily said and the door opened. The three boys followed her through the door.

"Whoa, your common room is so small compared to ours." Severus looked around.

"Yes but this is much more cozy." Ethan said touching one of the couches.

"Come on, the fourth year rooms are this way." Lily started up the stairs and led the way to the fourth year dorms. There were two doors that had fourth years on it; she went to the one on the left. She pointed at one bed, "That one's Daniel Brown, make sure you leave his stuff alone. He's a nice enough bloke."

"Sure, now if you wouldn't mind playing the lookout?" Ripper gestured towards the door. Lily nodded and shut the door behind her. "All right grab all their clothes and put it on the floor except for their underwear, we don't want to scar anyone for life."

"I don't know, Black and Lupin, I wouldn't be scarred for life." Ethan said thoughtfully.

"What about Pettigrew and Potter?" Ripper asked throwing clothes on the floor from one of the trunks.

"Never mind it's not worth it." Ethan started throwing clothes on the floor. They threw all the clothes from the four trunks making sure they didn't touch any underwear. Although when Ethan thought that Ripper and Severus weren't looking, he shoved something shimmery from Potter's trunk under his robes. Then Ripper walked around the clothes three times clockwise before throwing some herbs on the clothes. He waved his hand over the clothes and muttered a Latin spell. The clothes disappeared briefly before reappearing.

"Okay the spell is set. I just have to say the trigger and then the spell will be activated." Ripper said dusting his hands off.

"Dewdrop do you know a spell that will put all these clothes back in their place." Ethan turned to Severus.

Severus glared at Ethan, "Do you live to annoy me?"

"No I live to be able to watch that cute ass." Ethan gave him a saucy wink. Severus sighed and shook his head. Then he pointed his wand at the clothes and said the spell that put all the clothes back in their proper place.

Lily came running up the stairs, "Are you guys done yet? It's been twenty minutes and some of the sixth years, like Arthur Weasley, usually come back earlier than everyone else, so get moving."

"Oh no he might stutter at us." Severus said under his breath.

"Yea, right before he throws a book at you. Now let's go besides I want to eat." Lily stomped a foot.

Ripper put a hand on the small of her back and starting guiding her out the door, "We're going, luv keep your cloak on."

Lily gently removed Ripper's hand from her back with a smile and went back to grab Severus's hand and Ethan's arm, "Come on boys, this field trip is over." She pushed them in front of her out of the fourth years dorms and down into the common room. The door opened just as they were about to open it and she quickly shoved the boys behind her and smiled at the surprised Arthur Weasley. "Oh hey Arthur."

"Hi Lily, why are there Slytherins in our common room?" Arthur asked looking around Lily at Ripper, Severus, and Ethan.

"I needed to borrow a book from Lily." Severus said holding up a book that Ripper had shoved in his hands.

"Well you have it now, so if you wouldn't mind you're blocking the door." Arthur said moving back so they could go through the door. Lily just flashed him a big smile, grabbed Ethan's hand and pulled him through the door. Ripper and Severus followed them through the door.

"You know, I don't know why Molly likes that guy." Severus said as the door shut behind him.

"Molly, as in Molly Williams, that hellfire of a girl?" Ripper asked looking at Severus in surprise.

"Yeah, she asked me about him a couple of times." Lily replied walking towards the Great Hall.

"He is sort of cute in a nerdy sort of way." Ethan said thoughtfully.

"Enough about Arthur though, when will this prank take effect?" Lily asked impatiently.

"I'll trigger it in Potions and it'll last about twelve hours after it's activated. It'll start as a flicker and then it'll get longer and longer until it ends. It should be brilliant." Ripper grinned.

"Wicked, I can't wait till Potions." Lily smiled evilly.

-----------------------------------

Lily walked into the Potions classroom and walked straight over to where Lydia, Ripper, Severus, and Ethan were sitting. "Well when is it going to happen?"

"What, when is what going to happen?" Lydia looked back from Lily to Ripper.

"Shh Lily, it's a surprise. But if you wouldn't mind getting them over here, just in case for the trigger." Ripper said looking at the quartet as they walked into the classroom.

"Oh I know how to do that, no problem." Lily smirked with an evil glint in her eye. She crooked a finger at Severus, "Wanna play?"

"I think I know how to play this game." Severus stood up and gently took Lily's arm to pull her close. Then he started whispering in her ear while his other hand rested lightly on her shoulder.

Lily giggled loudly, "Oh Severus." And sure enough James looked at them and glared before stomping over with his other three friends.

"What do you think you're doing with Snivellus, Evans?" James sneered.

Ethan immediately took the opportunity to purr, "Hey Moony." Before throwing back his head and howling.

Ripper leaned toward the four and muttered, "Now you see it, soon you won't."

"Do you four need something, or are you simply that infatuated with Severus that you don't want him flirting with anyone else." Lydia asked in a bored voice. Then she turned to Lily, "You want to sit with me and Molly today?"

"Sure," Lily smiled then frowned, "I swear Potter if you don't move, I'll aim higher when I kick. Unless of course, you've already decided you never want to have children."

James frowned, "You wouldn't."

"Wanna find out, keep standing there." Lily snapped.

James didn't move for a second and Lily raised her foot. "Okay Evans, I'm moving." James raised his hands and sat back down in his seat. Sirius smirked at Lily before sitting next to James.

"Stop howling Rayne, you sound like an idiot." Remus glared at Ethan, who gave one last small howl and then gave Remus a look of pure innocence. Remus shook his head and sat down with his friends.

Severus leaned towards Ripper, "How is it going to work?"

"In five minutes, it'll start as a flicker, than in another five minutes and it'll happen again for a longer time, until it becomes an hour than it'll start over again as a flicker. Just watch and enjoy a prank pulled Wiccan magic style." Ripper whispered as Professor Samoht entered the room.

"Okay kids, the potion's on the board, follow the instructions, we'll try them at the end, and if you need help raise your hand. Well what are you all waiting for, get started." Professor Samoht said sitting down at his desk.

For the next five minutes everyone worked in silence while Severus, Ripper, Ethan, Lily, and Lydia kept glancing at the four Gryffindor boys. Then they started to smile, for just a second the Marauders' clothes disappeared leaving them in their underwear. Lydia let out an evil cackle that had everyone looking at her like she was insane.

"Something wrong Miss Zabini?" Professor Samoht asked looking up from his paperwork. Lydia smirked and shook her head no.

Another five minutes went by, but this time when their clothes disappeared someone noticed. "Ahhhhh, my clothes!" Peter squeaked and tried to cover his chest with his hands.

Molly looked at Remus and whistled, "Someone's been working out." Remus blushed darkly while Peter was trying to hide behind him. Sirius and James were pushing each other trying to stand behind the other one. Then quite suddenly their clothes reappeared.

"What the fuck just happened?" Sirius fumed and looked around to see the Gryffindors trying to hide their smile, with the exception of Lily who was laughing out right, and the Slytherins were snickering.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, watch the language Black. Now what just happened, who did that spell?" Professor Samoht looked around the room. Everyone was looking at everyone else with the exception of Lily who was still laughing. "Miss Evans do you know who did this, Miss Evans?"

Lily fell on the floor, "No. Lord, I've never seen such a scrawny pair of chicken legs."

"Miss Evans please control yourself." Professor Samoht said trying not to smile. Lily stood slowly wiping the tears from her eyes and went to sit back down. "Well if that's over, I think you all need to get back to your potions. I'm sorry boys but unless the person who did this comes forward, we can't know who did it."

Lily started laughing and pointing at James's leg as once again the boys' clothes disappeared. This time even the Gryffindors couldn't help laughing a little. Peter shrieked again and this time he ran out of the classroom. Sirius, James, and Remus stood still for a second before quickly running after Peter.

Severus leaned near Ethan to whisper, "And you wanted to turn them into demons."


	5. Guys With A Wild Side

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long but the spring semester started and I've been busy with physics and calculus 2 so until summer chapters are probably going to take a bit longer to come out.

-

Chapter 5: Guys with a Wild Side

Ethan, Ripper, and Severus were walking from their last class of the day when James and his gang stepped into their path. "Where is it?" James demanded hands on his hips.

"Where is …. what exactly?" Ripper asked raising his eyebrow.

"I know one of you took it. It went missing after that disappearing clothes thing, which we also know you guys did; don't think we forgot about that because we haven't. I've been searching for the past three weeks and I still haven't found it, which means one of you took it." James ranted angrily.

"Hey Potter, why don't you try keeping your mouth closed every once and while. It might make you look like less of an idiot, although I really wouldn't count on it." Severus smirked as James's mouth snapped shut.

"Maybe if you told us what you had lost, we could better gloat over the fact that you lost it." Ripper said.

"His cloak." Sirius growled and took a step towards the three Slytherins.

Ripper and Severus shared confused looks while Ethan smirked evilly, "Something wrong with your eyes boys, Potter's wearing his cloak."

"You know which one he means." James hissed.

"Why in the bloody hell would we steal a cloak, please we have more class than that even if you don't." Ripper sneered and began to push past the Gryffindor boys. "Now if you don't mind we would like to drop off our stuff in our dorms before dinner."

James took a swing at Ripper, who ducked. Sirius attempted to trip Ripper but he jumped out the way and punched James in the stomach. Sirius managed to hit Ripper in the back. Peter started to pull out his wand to curse Ripper.

"Think again Pettigrew. Petrificus totalus!" Severus snapped waving his wand at Peter. Then Sirius grabbed Severus by shoulders and threw him to the ground.

"Hey!" Ripper yelled and tried to go help Severus but James stepped in his way. Ripper pushed James into Sirius and they both tripped over Severus. "Oh shit sorry Sev."

Meanwhile, while the other boys had been having a proper tumble, Remus kept casting worried looks at the window that showed the sky slowly getting darker. With an impatient noise, Remus dropped his bag near the other Gryffindors and walked toward the courtyard that led to the outside.

Ethan, about to join in the brawl, noticed this and decided to follow Remus instead. As soon as he was out of sight of the other boys, Ethan pulled out a shimmery cloak from his bag with a grin. Then he stashed his bag behind a statue and hurriedly wrapped the cloak around him so he could follow Remus without being seen.

Back in the middle of the hall, Ripper managed to throw Sirius off of him when he noticed someone missing. "Hey where's Eth?" Ripper asked sitting up.

"What?" James paused briefly and then looked around, "Hey where's Remus?" All the boys turned at the sound of footsteps.

"Perhaps they realized that a Professor was coming and they didn't want to have any points deducted in their name." Professor Marlic said standing over the boys.

Lily who had been walking behind the professor took this time to say, "Or maybe they decided their time would be better spent making out in a broom closet."

"Miss Evans!" Professor Marlic admonished.

"What? Eth is always talking about how cute Remus is, maybe he finally seduced him." Lily said lifting her eyebrows with a smirk. Then she laughed at James look of combined shock and disgust. "You don't have anything to worry about Potter," James let out a breath when she paused, but it turned into a sound of outrage when she added, "he thinks you're down right ugly."

"Miss Evans, please stop talking. As for you boys, I'm taking fifty points each for you fighting and whoever cursed Mister Pettigrew will say the counter curse immediately." Professor Marlic demanded softly. Severus sighed but walked over and said the counter curse over Pettigrew. "Good," Professor Marlic said as James helped Peter up, "now I'm sure you all have somewhere to be rather than loitering in the middle of the hallway."

Severus and Ripper started walking toward the dungeons while the Gryffindors headed in the opposite direction. Sirius suddenly spoke up, "Evans, you were just joking about Moony and Rayne right?"

"Maybe, but then again I wouldn't go opening any broom closet doors if I were you." Lily stuck out her tongue at them before running ahead of them.

-meanwhile outside-

Ethan was three steps behind Remus. Remus was alternating between looking at the darkening sky and behind him. He was walking towards the Whomping Willow tree. Ethan paused for a second unsure if he wanted to follow Remus to the tree. Then he shook his head, sighed and continued to follow him. Remus slinked close to the tree and quickly pressed a knot on the tree that caused the tree branches to be still. Remus then disappeared through an opening at the bottom of the tree. Ethan quickly followed him down the hole.

Remus was walking through the tunnel when he stopped about halfway, "Is someone there?" Ethan stopped and silently cursed. Remus shook his head and continued down the path. Ethan counted to about two hundred before he started walking again.

Ethan finally reached the end of the tunnel and climbed out of it into a room that held broken furniture and Remus sitting on a bed. Ethan went to the corner farthest away from Remus before whipping off the cloak, "Well this certainly is a strange place to hang out."

Remus's eyes widened in shock, "Rayne, oh shit, you really need to get out of here now. I mean it, go."

"Why should I?" Ethan crossed his arms across his chest stubbornly.

"Please Ethan; I'm begging you, leave." Remus pleaded moving further away from Ethan.

"What's the…" Ethan trailed off as Remus started to change. "Oh fucking hell!" Ethan shouted and tried to run to the door but the now werewolf form of Remus stepped into his path. "Shit, shit, shit, why I am I such a pillock?" Ethan muttered and backed into the corner. "Okay, Ethan think come on think! My wand, no I left it in my bag. What do I do?" Ethan shouted as Remus began to stalk closer. Then as Remus jumped Ethan held his hands out in front of him and yelled, "Aegis!" A blue light formed in front of Ethan. When Remus bounced off the shield and whimpered, Ethan sighed in relief.

"God I hope this holds till morning." Ethan gulped. The blue light glowed brighter as once again Remus attempted to reach Ethan. Ethan slid down the wall into a crouch so that the shield could be stronger since it didn't have as much area to cover. When Remus seemed to realize that he couldn't reach Ethan he began to howl and throw himself against the walls.

"If I die Ripper is going to kill me." Ethan sighed and his shoulders slumped.

-first light of dawn-

"Finally." Ethan sighed and let his spell go as Remus changed back into a human. Remus groaned and gasped when he saw Ethan. Ethan stood up, "So werewolf huh, how's that working out for you?"

Remus stared at Ethan for a second before remembering he was naked and he quickly scrambled to get some clothes that were hidden beneath the bed. Once Remus was dressed he gave Ethan a confused look, "You see me as a werewolf and you ask me how's that working out for you? You're not going to scream I'm a monster or something like that."

"Why," Ethan leaned closer, "do you think I should?"

"No, Lord I thought you knew or something, the way you would howl at me every time you saw me." Remus said shaking his head.

"Well I heard that nickname and I figured it was an appropriate response. Then when I saw your reaction I couldn't help myself." Ethan paused, "So does Potter and them all know about you being a werewolf?"

"No they just started calling me that because when we found a boggart one time, it turned into a moon in front of me." Remus shrugged. "But speaking of that I really wish you wouldn't tell anyone else about this, they might not be as understanding as you." Remus pleaded sitting on the bed.

"On one condition…" Ethan drawled sitting down next to Remus.

"What condition?" Remus asked looking away from Ethan.

Ethan raised his eyebrow, "A kiss."

"What?" Remus shouted.

"Well if you'd rather have everyone else know…" Ethan went to stand up but Remus grabbed his arm.

"Wait. I didn't mean like that. I meant after learning I'm a werewolf, you still think I'm cute and you want to kiss me?" Remus gave Ethan a look of wonder.

Ethan smirked, "What can I say; I've got a thing for guys with a wild side."

Remus laughed, "Okay but I have two conditions of my own. One if I kiss you that's it, no blackmail or anything else or I'll tell Dumbledore."

Ethan shrugged, "That's reasonable, what's the other one?"

"I am not gay. I am only doing this because you're promising not to tell and you're being so nice to me even after finding out." Remus said softly before leaning toward Ethan and pressing his lips against Ethan's. Before Remus could move away, Ethan placed his hands on Remus neck to hold him in place. After a minute Ethan let go when Remus had lightly nipped Ethan's bottom lip. "Wow." Remus breathed.

Ethan took a more direct approach; he threw his head back and howled.


	6. Did You Hear About Lupin and Rayne

A/N: Okay the song at the end is from the play Bye Bye Birdie. This chapter gets a little tense at one point but that's because my muse Quinn who is usually in charge of my depressing poetry took hold of the story briefly but my other muse managed to get it back. I don't know whether or not this will be an Ethan/Remus boyfriend story but they will be friends at the very least. Oh yea and this is a -scene change-

-

Chapter 6: Did you hear about Lupin and Rayne

Ethan attempted to sneak quietly into his dorm room but stopped when he saw that Severus and Ripper were already up. "Where the in the bloody hell were you last night?" Severus demanded.

"Why did you miss me, my lamb?" Ethan asked grabbing a fresh robe to change into.

"Sev's pissed off because we spent half the night looking for you. We nearly got a detention for being out after hours, though we did manage to ensure that those Golden Gryffindor boys did get in trouble." Ripper smirked, but then he frowned. "Come to think of it they said they were looking for, oh what's his name, the one you always howl at."

Ethan gave a slightly wicked smile, "Remus Lupin."

Ripper looked at Ethan and groaned, "Oh, Eth tell me you didn't?" Ethan only raised his eyebrows at Ripper. Ripper groaned again.

"What did he do?" Severus asked.

Ripper glared at Ethan, "While we were out searching for his sorry ass, he was snogging Lupin!"

"What?" Severus yelled in disgust, "You spent the night snogging that boy, that's disgusting!"

Ethan's eyes flashed in rage, "You got a problem with me liking guys?" Ethan quickly grabbed some books that were on his bed and stomped out of his dorm room.

Ripper grabbed Severus by the arm, "Do you have a problem with Eth liking guys?"

"No!" Severus shouted.

"Then you had better hurry up and tell him." Ripper said throwing Severus his bag. Severus caught his bag and quickly hurried after Ethan.

Severus grabbed Ethan just as he was about to walk out of the common room, "Wait Ethan, just wait one minute and let me explain." Ethan stepped away from the door and crossed his arms. "Look the way that came out I didn't mean it that way. I don't care if you like boys, you can go kiss every boy in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin and I'd still like you." Ethan took a step closer to Severus with a look in his eyes and Severus held up his hands in defense, "Except me, if you kiss me again, I swear I will kick your ass. You know you could kiss a lot of guys in Gryffindor and I wouldn't care, but one of the Marauders, I mean they're such pillocks." Severus ended with a sigh.

"Lupin may be a pillock but he's one hell of a kisser, bes—" Ethan paused as a bunch of Slytherins came down the stairs and either giggled or blushed depending on their gender, while Severus glared at them, "Besides what did Lupin ever do to you?"

"Well," Severus said thinking, "nothing I suppose he usually just stands back and rolls his eyes. I guess it's okay that you kissed Lupin but if I ever find you snogging Potter I will personally tie you up and leave you in a room with a werewolf."

Ethan smiled for a second and then stuck his tongue in disgust, "Do you want to make me throw up, as if I'd have the bad taste to kiss Potter." Ethan smiled suddenly, "Now that, that's cleared up. I have to go get my bag, want to accompany me mon joli ami, you can come too Ripper." Ethan told Ripper when he walked up to them.

"Wait a minute; what the fuck did you just call me?" Severus yelled as Ripper laughed and Ethan walked out the door.

They walked to the Great Hall with just a quick detour so that Ethan could get his bag from behind the statue. As they were eating they noticed that a lot of the Slytherins kept glancing at Ethan before whispering to their friends. Ripper was the first to comment on it, "What is going on? Why do they keep looking at you Eth?" Ethan shrugged and continued eating. Ripper got up and discreetly walked behind a bunch of Slytherins before returning to his seat laughing, "You want to know what they're all talking about? They're all asking each other did you hear about Lupin and Rayne."

Severus cringed, "Maybe we shouldn't have had that conversation in front of all those other Slytherins." Ethan only grinned and shrugged again. "Come on it's Thursday, that means double potions with the Gryffindors before lunch." As soon as the three boys left a girl from the Slytherin table ran over to the Ravenclaw table and whispered something to one of the other girls.

As the three Slytherin boys came near the potions classroom, they stopped in the doorway as they saw the Marauders in what looked like a heated argument. Ripper gestured to his friends and they quietly sat in the back with a few other Slytherins who were silently observing their argument.

"Come on Moony, why won't you tell us where you were last night?" James yelled.

"I was just out, I had to see Dumbledore about something, okay?" Remus replied.

"No you didn't we looked for you there." Sirius snapped.

"Well I I –" Remus stuttered.

"Maybe Lily was right when she said that Remus and that Rayne guy were making out." Peter piped up. At this point most of the class was either sitting or standing in the back listening to their argument with fascination.

"What! As if Moony wou—" James stopped as he noticed Remus blushing, "You were? You were snogging Rayne."

However it was when this sentence was said that Lily and Lydia walked into the classroom. They both squealed and jumped up, gathering everyone's attention. Lily giggled, "I knew it, I knew Ethan seduced Remus." Everyone jumped as Ethan started howling, they all looked at Remus to see his reaction. Remus looked thoughtful for a second before he threw his own head back and howled along with Ethan.

"They are so cute together. I can just imagine it; them lip locking, hands all over each others bodies." Lydia smirked as many of the boys looked like they were going to throw up, while James was getting more and more angry.

James stormed over to where Ethan was standing and grabbed him by the cloak and shoved him against one of the nearby tables. Everyone started shouting and quickly formed a circle around the two, the Gryffindors boys making sure that the Slytherins couldn't get to Ethan. Remus grabbed James and tried to pull him off of Ethan while whispering in James's ear, "It was just one kiss and it was a trade."

"Trade?" James growled.

"Got your cloak back, didn't you?" Ethan wheezed trying to get his breath back. "Though from the way he kissed I think I definitely got the better part of the deal. He certainly seemed to enjoy it."

James backhanded Ethan across the face, "That was for taking my cloak."

"James are you going to not be my friend just because I do something with someone that you don't like?" Remus whispered urgently when it looked like James was about to hit Ethan again.

James lowered his hand, "No, I'd rather be your friend. I'll just hope you come to your senses soon and realize that he," James paused to shake Ethan, "isn't worth your time."

"And if he doesn't?" Ethan asked trying to gain his balance.

James glared at Ethan before looking at Remus, "You've been my friend forever, and I won't give up our friendship over one stupid Slytherin boy."

Before Remus could respond, Ethan snorted, "Well now that you've approved of Remus and me kissing—"

"What is going on here?" Professor Samoht asked as he tried to get through the door. James immediately dropped Ethan on the floor and everyone else scattered with the exception of Lydia, Lily, Severus, and Ripper who moved to help Ethan. "Mister Rayne are you okay? What happened?"

Everyone started talking, but stopped when Ethan clearly deadpanned, "I fell."

"Really, you're bleeding." Professor Samoht said unconvinced.

Ethan swiped his hand against his lip and then looked at the blood, "Bit my lip on the way down."

"Fine," Professor Samoht sighed, "if you could all take your seats. I'm sorry I was late I was stuck." Professor Samoht finished looking pointedly at a pair of Gryffindors who were twins.

"We didn't do anything, we swear." Beth Jordan said trying to look as innocent as humanly possible.

"You can ask our older brother Noah we were with him the whole time. We never went near your room." Sarah Jordan groaned when she realized what she had said, "Bloody hell."

"I expect to see you two and your brother at eight o'clock." Professor Samoht said.

"Yes sir." Beth and Sarah muttered.

"Now are we all ready to start," Professor Samoht asked and waited for everyone to nod their heads, "good, then get to it."

As Ripper started preparing the ingredients, he leaned over Severus to ask Ethan, "Why did you lie, that's not like you."

Ethan tilted his head towards James, "It confuses him, that I didn't get him in trouble, which makes it funny." Severus looked at James, who quickly turned to Sirius.

"Neat, not worth the bloody lip but still, interesting effect." Ripper said.

-lunch time-

Everyone at lunch was whispering and either looking at Remus or Ethan. Remus had his head on the table and seemed to be sleeping. Ethan was throwing small bits of food at Ripper because he won't let him leave. The only teacher, who was on duty, suddenly got up and left after one of the other teachers, came in and whispered something in his ear. Once the teachers were gone, at the same time Lydia went and dragged Ethan from his seat, Lily was doing the same with Remus. They dragged them in front of the room and made them face each other.

"What this then?" Ethan asked looking at Lydia.

"Kiss." Lily said.

"Excuse me." Remus stuttered.

"Kiss him." Lydia added.

"I'm game but why?" Ethan asked.

"To see the cuteness." Lily reasoned.

"I think James might do something to Ethan again despite what he said if we do kiss again." Remus said.

"Lily will kick him in the shins if he tries anything." Lydia replied.

"Promise?" Ethan asked looking at Lily. She nodded her head yes. "Okay then." Ethan grabbed Remus by the back of the neck and pulled him for a kiss. Remus didn't even think about it, he just wrapped his hand in Ethan's hair.

"Hey Lily," Lydia sang.

"Hey Lydia," Lily sung back.

"Morning glory, what's the story?"

"What's the word, hummingbird?"

Then they chimed in together, "Did you hear about Lupin and Rayne."

Remus broke off from the kiss and gasped, "Oh, you two are so evil." Lily and Lydia smiled as the room was filled with clapping and catcalls.

-

Translation:

mon joli ami is French for my pretty friend


	7. Pay Attention

Chapter 7: Pay attention

Professor Marlic came rushing in and roughly grabbed Remus. He jerked him away from Ethan, Lily, and Lydia to where the other three couldn't hear what he was saying to Remus. It looked like Remus attempted to argue but he stopped after the Professor responded.

"What just happened?" Ethan asked looking at Lydia and Lily.

Lily sighed and shook her head, "Haven't you ever noticed in class that Professor Marlic doesn't seem to like Remus?"

Lydia tilted her head in thought, "Which is weird because most teachers like Remus."

Ethan shook his head, "No I guess I never noticed."

"Then pay attention in class today for once instead of plotting evil plans with Sev and Ripper." Lily suggested.

Lydia laughed while Ethan hung his head and said, "I'll try to hold off the temptation of plotting and pay attention...to Remus." He smiled and stuck his tongue out at Lily.

Professor Marlic let go of Remus and yelled, "Alright kids get to class."

Ethan smiled and walked back over to the Slytherin table with Lydia. "What the hell was that?" Severus demanded.

Ethan raised his eyebrows innocently, "Blame Lydia and Lily they're the ones who seem to have a taste for the male smoochies."

Ripper only shook his head, "I thought you got all that American lingo out of your system."

Ethan shrugged, ''It sneaks up on me at times. Anyway come on I want to get to class.''

Severus looked at Ethan in horror, ''Who are you and what have you done with our Ethan?''

Ethan smirked, "Worry not pearl of my heart, I want to see something not learn."

Severus frowned, "Run out of pet names to call me in French."

Ethan put his arm around Severus and kissed him on the cheek, "No I simply thought of more in English." Severus groaned as he wiped his cheek off.

Ripper leaned into Lydia, "Who's more cute, Eth and Sev or Eth and Gryff boy over there?"

Lydia shrugged, "I don't know I'd have to see Eth and Sev kiss before I decide."

Severus groaned and started moving towards the doors, "You and Lily really need to get a better hobby than seeing how many boys you can get Ethan to kiss."

Lily walked over just to hear the last part and cupped her hands to yell at Severus, "How about how many girls we can get you to kiss?"

Severus turned around walking backwards, "You volunteering?"

Lydia suddenly ran up to Severus and kissed him sloppily on the mouth before running out the doors yelling, "That's one!"

Lily, Ripper, and Ethan joined Severus at the door and Ripper reached over and closed Severus's mouth, "She is a Slytherin mate." Severus rolled his eyes and led the way to their Muggle Studies class.

As usual the three Slytherin boys sat in the back although this time Lily sat next to Ethan. Lily nodded slightly in Remus's direction and whispered in Ethan's ear, "Look he's not sitting in the front row, like he does in every class."

Ethan tilted his head, "Yeah okay."

Professor Marlic came into the room smirking, "Alright kids this week's topic is a muggle's view on the supernatural. Let's start with werewolves." Professor Marlic sat behind his desk. Ethan's eyebrow raised as he saw Remus flinch and Professor Marlic smiled wider.

Ethan looked at Remus's slightly paniced expression and gave an evil smile in the direction of Professor Marlic. Ethan gestured and suddenly the room looked like it was on fire. Ripper glanced at Ethan before yelling, "Fire! Fire! Everyone get out." All the students rushed out of the room with the exception of Ethan, Severus, and Ripper. Professor Marlic tried to put out the fire with his wand but it wasn't working. Suddenly some of the fire jumped to the Professor and he started jumping around to put out the fire. They stood a few more minutes watching before leaving and shutting the door behind them.

Ripper shoved Ethan, "Why did you do that?" They started walking away from the classroom in the direction of the courtyard. "You stopped it didn't you?"

Ethan shrugged, "I was bored and yeah I stopped once we closed the door. What?"

Ripper glared, "Next time you're bored, go to sleep or think up evil plots like you usually do."

Ethan wrapped his arms around Ripper, "I'm sorry. Next time I promise I'll let him finish the lesson before I randomly set fires." Ripper tried to break Ethan's grip on him but Ethan only held on tighter. "Ripper I said I was sorry." Ethan whined.

Ripper sighed, "Fine I forgive you."

"Yay!" Ethan squealed before licking the side of Ripper's face and running away.

"Oh you're dead." Ripper shouted running after the laughing Ethan.

Severus snorted as he slowly followed them into the courtyard, "Oh yea, they're definitely brothers."

A/N: Sorry it's short I'll try to make the next one longer and that should come more faster soon cuz soon I'll be done with school yay


	8. Slytherin's Three Musketeers

A/N: Just in case anyone was wondering I don't own the idea of or the book of the three musketeers. Also I'm basing it off the 1993 movie as I haven't read the book. Also in my opinion this chapter is much better than the last one which I apologize for but it was necessary

Chapter 8: Slytherin's Three Musketeers

"I love Halloween; it's such a chaotic experience." Ethan said jumping up and down.

"No you like Halloween because you get an excuse to dress up as a girl." Ripper snorted.

"You guys actually dress up for Halloween?" Severus asked looking up from his homework.

"Of course we do, my dear wizarding child and so do you or did you not see the sign that declared a dance this lovely Halloween night." Ethan replied.

"Only muggleborns dress up for the dance." Severus sneered.

Ripper smacked Severus upside the head, "And exactly who do you think you are rooming with Sev cause it certainly isn't purebloods."

"I wasn't planning on going to the dance either way." Severus grumbled.

"Not going, not going!" Ethan shrieked.

"Calm down you girl." Severus said.

"I already had the perfect plan and if you don't go and dress up with us then it will be ruined. I've been planning this forever." Ethan babbled.

"Fine I'll go." Severus rolled his eyes. Ethan hugged Severus until he started gasping for air.

"Oops sorry." Ethan said letting go.

"What's your plan?" Ripper asked getting off his bed.

"This." Ethan went into his trunk and pulled out a bunch of green and silver material and three swords.

"What is all this?" Severus picked up some of the material and realized it was a tunic.

Ethan smiled evilly, "Put it on. It's almost time to go anyway." Then he grabbed something else out of his trunk before running out of the room, "I'll be back in a second."

"Right." Severus groaned.

Ripper shrugged and put on one of the costumes, "At least he doesn't want us to dress up as girls."

"Has he ever done that do you?" Severus asked as he pulled off his clothes.

"Once after which I made him be my slave for a week." Ripper tilted his head slightly, "I'm never really sure if I should have had him be my slave for a month instead."

"That bad?" Severus wondered as he pulled on his costume.

"You don't want to know." Then as Ripper strapped on his sword he moaned, "He made us bloody musketeers."

"That's not so bad though I thought it was a good book." Severus responded looking down at his own costume.

"Fine but if anyone asks I'm Porthos." Ripper grumbled crossing his arm over his chest.

"I claim Aramis which means Sevie here is Athos which gives him a reason to be glum." Ethan said as he entered the room. He quickly donned his costume and a large cross.

As they were walking into their common room Ripper asked Ethan, "You know in the book the uniforms of the musketeers were blue and white."

"I am aware of that Ripper. However we are not musketeers of France," Ethan gestured to Lydia coming down the stairs in what looked to be a king's costume with Slytherin's crest, "we are Slytherin's three musketeers."

"That's actually kind of clever." Severus said slowly. Ethan only nodded happily and took Lydia's hand as she reached them. They began walking to the Great Hall, Ethan and Ripper on either side of Lydia while Severus was a step behind. They were a bit late to the dance because they had gotten dressed late so most everyone else was there.

"Oh wow you guys look brilliant." Lily said running up to them. Then as she twirled around she asked, "What do you think of mine?" She was dressed in flowing green skirts with a purple sash tied around her waist and a white peasant top. She had charmed her hair black and curly with small bells twined throughout her hair.

"Gypsy suits you." Ripper said looking her up and down. When he noticed that Severus was just staring at her, he nudged him.

"Yes you look quite beautiful." Severus managed to say.

"Then perhaps you will grace me with a dance sir musketeer?" Lily curtsied and held out her hand to Severus.

Severus shook his head, "I don't dance."

Ethan gave him a shove in Lily's direction, "Go on Athos, it'll get your mind off your dead wife." Severus glared but began spinning Lily about in time to the music. "Well Athos can certainly dance." Ethan said in slight awe.

"He didn't say he couldn't, he said that he didn't dance. Apparently all he needed was a push in the right direction." Lydia smirked before turning to Ripper, "And what about you?"

"My King Slytherin only needs to command me…" Ripper bowed low.

"Well then my musketeer let us dance." Lydia cackled as Ripper grabbed her by the waist and whisked her to next to where Lily and Severus were dancing.

Ethan smiled at his friends as they would spin and switch partners then trade back. Slowly he made his way to where Remus was standing by the food table watching James dance with Amada O'Connell, another Gryffindor, while Sirius was dancing with Kelly Finch, a Hufflepuff. "Hey Remy, how goes it?" Ethan sidled up next to Remus.

"I'm just wondering here but are you incapable of calling anyone by their actual name?" Remus leaned in Ethan's direction.

"Quite possibly." Ethan replied in a thoughtful voice. "So what are you suppose to be?"

Remus looked down at his jeans and long tee-shirt, "Officially a muggle."

"And unofficially…" Ethan asked.

"A werewolf when the moon isn't full." Remus grinned wolfishly.

"Cute but enough talk. How about a dance?" Ethan held out his arms.

"Uh…" Remus stuttered. Then he found himself pushed into Ethan's arm. Remus looked to see Lily and Lydia dancing away back to where Ripper and Severus were dancing. Then Lily cut in on Ripper and Severus, and Lydia started dancing with Severus. As Ethan began spinning them onto the dance floor, Remus laughed, "I'm going to kill them. I don't care if I'm a Gryffindor those girls need to be killed or put in a straight jacket."

Ethan smirked, "If you attempt to kill my king I will have to clap you in irons."

"Let me guess, King Slytherin and his three musketeers. Are you Porthos?" Remus asked.

"No Aramis actually. Ripper claimed Porthos first." Ethan responded as they stopped spinning and merely started swaying slowly to the beat.

"That would explain the cross." Remus nodded to the cross around Ethan's neck.

Ethan nodded then he noticed Professor Marlic talking to a man who was dressed up like a hunter. "Who's that talking to Marlic?" Ethan wondered aloud.

"I don't know I've seen him once or twice when I was going to the Whomping Willow though. I think he's the Professor's friend because I only see him around Marlic." Remus shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey Rayne." James said walking up to Ethan and Remus with Sirius at his side.

Ethan smirked, "Pothead, Blackie."

"You can't even call people by their proper last names." Remus snickered quietly.

"What no girls wanted to dance with you?" Sirius sneered.

"Why would I want to dance with a girl when I can dance with my lovely Remy here?" Ethan said.

"Are you trying to get your ass kicked?" Remus whispered.

"No but I see that your friends obviously want to dance with you as well and I won't deny them that pleasure." Ethan sighed loudly. Then Ethan quickly pecked Remus on the lips before pushing him into Sirius and James. "Have fun dancing boys." Ethan called as he made his way to the other musketeers, Lily, and Lydia.

Remus laughed when he looked at Sirius and James' twin face at astonishment but stopped when they glared at him. "Uh… um… Lily made me do it." Remus said before making his way back to the food table near Peter.

Ethan tapped Lily on the shoulder, "Excusez-moi mademoiselle, mais je dois danser avec mon beau garcon ici."

Lily laughed, "Lucky for you, I happen to be a French gypsy so, allez-y."

Ethan bowed before grabbing Severus' hand, "Merci." Lily smiled and went to Ripper and Lydia where they formed a sort of dancing triangle. "Let us dance." Ethan began a sort of fast tango which Severus managed to keep up with.

Once the song had ended Dumbledore went on stage where the band was playing. "I would like to take this time to say that there are many good costumes including my own," Dumbledore took a moment to look down at his hippie outfit, "however there is one that sticks out above all others and that is King Slytherin and his three musketeers. Please come to the stage and receive your prize." Dumbledore said above the clapping.

Once Lydia, Ripper, Severus, and Ethan made their way onto the stage, Ripper pulled his sword out of his sheath and held it up high. "One for all." Ripper yelled. Severus and Ethan quickly pulled out their own swords and clinked them against Ripper's yelling, "And all for Slytherin." At that all the Slytherins cheered and Lydia threw her crown into the air.

Translation:

excuse me miss but I must dance with my lovely boy here

go ahead

thank you


	9. It's snowing

Chapter 9: It's snowing

Ethan, Ripper, and Severus were sitting at one of the tables in the library working on their homework. At least Ripper and Severus looked like they were, Ethan was covertly smoking a cigarette. "Why are you writing in that book Sev?" Ripper asked looking over at Severus.

"I'm fixing it." Severus said without looking up from his writing.

Ethan lifted up one end of the book, "You're fixing your potions textbook?"

"Yes I do this with all my potion textbooks. I don't know why they print them this way with just a simple changes potions would go so much smoother." Severus said while rolling his eyes.

Ethan grabbed the textbook out of Severus's hands, "Geez, you're a regular potions master aren't you Sevy boy."

"Hey would you give that back I wasn't done yet." Severus reached for his textbook.

"Ask me nicely." Ethan said leaning away from Severus.

"Eth don't be an ass give him back his book, I want to copy down some of that stuff." Ripper tried to grab the book out of Ethan's hands. Ethan laughed and moved further away from both of them.

"Hey no fighting in the library." Madam Pince shouted quietly. Then she noticed Ethan smoking, "Ethan Rayne there is to be no smoking in the library!" She took Ethan by the arm and pushed him out of the library. "You are banned for a week."

"Whoops?" Ethan shrugged his shoulders as Ripper and Severus walked out of the library.

Severus smacked Ethan upside the head and took his textbook back, "Annoying prat!"

"Come on let's go outside." Ripper said leading the way outside.

"But it's snowing." Severus complained.

"Oh well." Ripper laughed. Before they went outside, they placed their books behind a statue so they wouldn't get wet. As soon as they were outside Ripper gathered a snowball while Ethan distracted Severus. Then Ripper threw the snowball hitting Severus in the back of the head.

Severus turned around and glared at Ripper before smiling and waving his wand. Ripper yelled in outrage as he was pelted by snowballs. Ethan was on the ground laughing until Severus smirked and turned his wand on Ethan. Ripper tackled Severus once he realized he was no longer being attacked.

Ethan was brushing snow off himself when suddenly he was hit in the back of the head with two snowballs and one in the back. He turned around to see Lydia, Lily, and Molly each holding a snowball and smirking. Ethan looked down at Ripper and Severus who had stopped rolling around in the snow, "I think we may have a snowball fight on our hands boys."

Ripper and Severus got off the ground just in time to get hit in the face with a snowball while Ethan ducked. A total snowball fight ensued. Molly only seemed to get hit once while more often then not Ripper got hit in the face. When Lydia and Molly were taking cover behind a tree the Marauders made an appearance and of course misread the situation.

"Hey you can't just take on one lone Gryffindor." James shouted in outrage.

"Yeah." Sirius and Peter chimed in. Remus was trying to gain their attention while pointing to the tree where Lydia and Molly were starting to look out from.

Lily smirked as Lydia and Molly came out from behind the tree and the three Slytherin boys came to stand behind them. "Oh I may be the only Gryffindor but I sure am not alone." Then collectively they all threw snow at Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter.

Peter was immediately subdued by Molly and Lydia. James was actually holding his own against Severus and Lily. Sirius and Ripper had forgotten about the snow and were dueling instead. Lastly Remus and Ethan were just trying to avoid stray hexes and snowballs while throwing snow at each other.

As a tawny owl came flying down with a loud screech all the fights quickly stopped. While everyone else was watching the owl, the Marauders took this time to retreat back into the castle. The owl seemed to hesitate between Ripper and Ethan but then decided to land on Ethan's shoulder. The owl held out its leg and Ethan took the letter off of it.

"I thought that owls only delivered in the morning." Lydia said cocking her head to the side.

"Yeah well this is my mom's old owl Screechy." Ripper held out his arm for Screechy to fly to.

"Screechy?" Molly asked with a snort.

Ripper shrugged, "She got it when she was young."

"What does it say?" Lily wondered nodding towards the letter Ethan was holding.

Ethan shrugged and opened the letter, "It's my mom, she's sick."

"And…" Ripper said.

"I don't know seems bad otherwise why else would he send a letter." Ethan said waving the letter in Ripper's face.

Ripper grabbed the letter, "My father sent it." Ethan nodded and Ripper swore.

"What? I'm confused." Lydia said.

"My dad's not very good at communicating, so Ethan's mom must be really sick." Ripper replied.

"Oh is she going to be okay?" Molly asked concerned.

"Dunno luv, he didn't say." Ethan put his arms around Molly and Severus, "Come on let's go back inside, it's cold. Ahhhh!" Ethan yelped as Lydia stuffed snow down the back of his shirt. Lydia grinned before running into the castle with Ethan chasing her yelling, "You're bloody dead, you just don't know it yet."

"Wait if you kill her you'll be committing regicide." Molly laughed as she ran after them.

"Regicide?" Severus wondered.

"People have been calling you guys Slytherin's three musketeers ever since Halloween or haven't you guys noticed." Lily smiled before skipping inside.

"Yeah I guess they have been saying that." Ripper gave a small laugh as they slowly started walking into Hogwarts.

"Uh Ripper." Severus said slowly.

"Yes," Ripper replied.

"If your step mom is really sick, you know like if she doesn't get better," Severus stumbled with his words as they made their way down to the Slytherin common room.

"Spit it out." Ripper encouraged Severus.

"Well because I know you only go here because she wants you to learn magic so umm…" Severus said taking time to choose his words.

"Today Sev." Ripper exasperated.

"Will your dad let you stay here if she dies?" Severus asked stopping in front of the Slytherin door.

Ripper shook his head thoughtfully, "I don't know. He might but more likely than not he'll have Ethan and me come back home."

"Oh," Severus said softly before he looked at the portrait and said, "Right viper's den."

As the door opened Severus grabbed Ripper and pulled him down. So that both of them just barely missed a snowball in the face. Lydia and Ethan were conjuring snowballs out of thin air before launching them at each other. A lot of the younger Slytherins were taking refuge behind pieces of furniture while the older prefects were trying to get Lydia and Ethan to stop.

"Hey Eth if you wanted to continue the snowball fight we could have stayed outside." Ripper shouted.

"Yes take it outside please." Prefect Narcissa Black yelled before ducking behind a pillar when Lydia threw a snowball at her. "Hey ten points from Slytherin."

"Immobulus!" Severus shouted before making his way across the common room avoiding the slow moving snowballs.

"What did you do that for Severus?" Molly asked. She had been to the side so she evaded the spell.

As Severus made his way to the stairs he said, "Now I know I won't get hit by another snowball."

"That is a smart man." Narcissa said to Ripper as he made his way past her.

Ripper stopped and stood behind the pillar with her, "Keep watching."

The other Slytherins began to emerge from their cover and were in the middle of Ethan and Lydia's fight when Severus was halfway up the stairs.

"Finite Incantum." Severus waved his wand in Ethan's and Lydia's direction. The Slytherins screamed as they were bombarded by snowballs.

"Smart and a little sadistic as well." Molly laughed as she joined Ripper and Narcissa.

"Sounds perfect to me." Narcissa sighed. Ripper snorted before walking up the stairs with Molly behind him.

A/N: Sorry took so long to update been busy with work and stuff


	10. On Christmas Day

Chapter 10: On Christmas Day

A/N: Again sorry it took me so long but a Christmas chapter for the holidays. Enjoy.

-----

"Ah Christmas break the time we've all been waiting for." Ethan sighed in happiness as he collapsed on one of the plush couches in the Slytherin common room. Their last class of the first term had just ended and many Slytherins were grabbing their trunks before they went home for the break.

"Are you guys going home for the break?" Lydia asked as she and Molly sat down on a couch opposite Ethan's.

Ripper snorted, "I rather think not."

"What about you Sev? You usually go home for the break right?" Molly asked.

"I talked my mom into letting me stay this year." Severus answered as he shoved Ethan's legs off the couch and sat next to him.

"And what about you two lovely ladies?" Ethan asked as he put his feet on top of Severus's lap. Severus rolled his eyes but didn't do anything about it.

"Going home." Both of them responded in unison.

"Don't you have two have to go get your trunks, I mean the train leaves soon." Ripper said.

"I suppose." Molly sighed. She got up hugged Ethan and Ripper. Severus held out his hand for her to shake, but she used it to pull him closer and pecked him on the mouth.

"That's two." Lydia smirked. Severus rolled his eyes and Lydia gave him a hug. Then she kissed both Ethan and Ripper on the cheek before following Molly up the stairs.

Practically all of the Slytherins started to leave with their trunks, some had them levitated off the ground, others had shrunk them, and the younger ones were just dragging theirs behind them. Narcissa Black made her way to where Severus was sitting on the couch.

"I just wanted to say I hope you have a nice Christmas." Narcissa said before calmly leaning down kissing Severus. Then she winked and walked out of the common room.

"Why in the bloody hell do people keep kissing me today?" Severus shouted as Lydia and Molly were coming down the stairs.

"Yes three," Lydia crowed throwing a fist into the air, "go Narcissa Black!"

"You didn't see her… You told her to kiss me." Severus pointed a finger in Lydia's direction.

Lydia put a hand to her chest as if shocked, "I most certainly did not." Severus glared at her. "I merely planted the thought in her head and that above yours." Lydia pointed to a piece of mistletoe hanging about a foot above Severus's head. Lydia was halfway out the door by the time Severus got his wand out. A rolling dive saved her from the hex Severus threw.

Molly laughed as she went out the door behind Lydia, "Always with the king killing. Have a good Christmas boys."

Severus slowly looked up above him at the hanging mistletoe, "Incendio." Severus smiled as the offending plant was burned to ash.

-----------christmas day---------------

"12 Christmas trees, 11 flying owls, 10 hanging mistletoe, 9 drunk elves, 8 singing portraits, 7 smart professors, 6 floating ghosts, 5 Ravenclaw girls, 4 Gryffindors, 3 Slytherin boys, 2 Hufflepuffs all in a castle on Christmas day." Ripper sang loudly as they were walking through the halls after the Christmas feast.

Severus raised his eyebrows at Ripper, "9 drunk elves?"

"Didn't you see them? They kept popping up and would stumble around until one of the other house elves grabbed them. Though I counted twelve." Ethan said.

Severus smirked, "Okay, um are we going anywhere in particular?"

Ripper shrugged, "Just wanted to explore the halls a bit, you know when there aren't three hundred other kids around. We can go back to the common room if you want."

"Tired of our walk buc—" Ethan stopped and put a finger to his lips. He crept closer to a classroom where he heard voices. He went on one side of the door while Ripper and Severus went on the other side.

"What do you mean he's not here?" A rough male voice asked angrily.

"I sent you an owl didn't you……… oh right of course not. Would you please stop shooting my owls when you see them. Anyway he didn't stay for the break." A different person responded. Ethan mouthed 'Professor Marlic' and Severus nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean? You said he always stays over Christmas break." The other voice said.

"He went home with one of his friends. Don't worry we can do it in a month or so, the week before the next full moon. A week before and there shouldn't be any problem with him." Professor Marlic said.

Ethan gasped loudly and hit the door by accident. "What was that? I heard something." The other voice said.

"I'll go check." Professor Marlic said.

'Dumb ass' Ripper mouthed at Ethan before grabbing Severus and pulling him behind a statue. "Janus help me, abdo de cunctus." Ethan muttered before closing his eyes.

Professor Marlic opened the door and peered about the hallway. He went back inside the classroom. "You better get going. Here let me, Hunter's cabin."

"I'll see you a week before the full moon." The other guy said and then Professor Marlic walked out of the classroom.

A couple minutes later after he was gone Severus and Ripper stepped out from behind the statue. "Eth where are you?" Ripper called looking around. Ethan opened his eyes and became visible. "Praying to Janus again, were we?"

"Clumsy oaf," Severus smacked the back of Ethan's head, "don't you know how to keep quiet when you're eavesdropping. You can't go about gasping and knocking into things, it'll get you caught." Severus pushed Ethan's head down again for good measure.

"Do you know who they were talking about Eth?" Ripper asked.

"Come on let's get going, he might come back." Ethan started walking back in the direction of their common room.

Severus and Ripper trailed slowly behind Ethan. Ripper leaned towards Severus, "I think he was talking about a student."

"Yes and Ethan knows who. Who do you think it could be?" Severus commented.

"Dunno. That boy knows everybody, he's a bloody social butterfly." They reached the portrait to find that Ethan had already gone in ahead of them.

"Well we'll just see what happens a week before the full moon, won't we?" Severus said before they entered the common room.

Ethan was there with two big wrapped boxes. "Okay lads, I think it's time to exchange our Christmas presents." Ethan glared at Ripper, "Don't know why we had to wait though."

Severus and Ripper went and grabbed the only other presents left under the tree. They pushed three of the smaller armchairs into a small triangle before sitting down. "Eth first, Sev next, me last." Ripper delegated.

Ripper and Severus both handed Ethan a present. Ethan opened Severus's first. "Ooo chocolate frogs, my favorite. Thanks precious." Severus rolled his eyes but smiled. Ethan let out a cry of glee as he saw what Ripper had gotten him. Ethan immediately put the necklace on.

Severus tilted his head, "Is that the Chinese symbol of chaos?"

"Yep. Alright you're next Sevvy boy." Ethan grabbed Ripper's present for Severus. "Open his first." Ethan pushed the gift into Severus's hands.

Severus unwrapped the gift slowly. His eyes widened as it revealed a book. "It's a potions book. Sweet Salazar, this is one of the most sought after books in the world."

Ripper smiled, "I know."

"How'd you get your hands on it?" Severus asked.

Ripper just shook his head, "Just enjoy your gift Sev."

"Thank you Ripper." Severus said smiling. Ethan shoved his present at Severus. Severus gently put his book down beside him. He lovingly stroked the cover before accepting Ethan's present. Severus unwrapped Ethan's present. "A box just what I've always wanted." Ethan glared at Severus. Severus took the top off. He pulled out a silk black shirt along with black pants and combat boots. Severus at first frowned then he smirked, "Stompy boots."

Ethan laughed, "Look deeper in the box." Severus pushed aside another layer of tissue paper, revealing thick black robes with very thin strips of green around the collar, cuffs, and bottom. "Do you like it?" Ethan asked hesitantly.

Severus smirked but nodded, "Yea Ethan I like them." Severus looked over at Ripper who was pretending to gag. "Here open you present." Severus said throwing his gift into Ripper's lap.

Ripper hurriedly ripped off the wrapping paper. "Bloody hell Sev where'd you find a book of demon languages?" Ripper asked excitedly.

"Just enjoy your gift Ripper." Severus said with a slightly evil smile on his face.

"Git." Ripper muttered but he was smiling as he took the present Ethan was handing him. "Oh my god." Ripper said before jumping up and hugging Ethan and kissing him on the cheek.

"What he'd get you?" Severus asked. Ripper pulled out a guitar out of the box. "You play?" Severus asked.

"He sings too." Ethan smiled.

"Oh?" Severus asked.

Ripper began strumming his guitar before he smiled and began to sing.

"No time like the holidays to feel happy and free

Staying with friends and away from family

Stuck in a castle buried under snow

Eth's been hanging 'round the mistletoe

Sev's got new clothes to wear

And Ripper's voice is ringing through the air

Oooo running through the halls

No cares at all

On Christmas day

We're just happy to be away."

Ethan and Severus clapped as Ripper played an ending note on the guitar. Ripper began playing another song, this time one that Ethan knew as well. They began to sing while Severus nodded along to the beat. They spent the rest of the night breaking in Ripper's new guitar and singing. Even Severus sang……………once.

Translation

Abdo de cunctus (Latin) hide from all


	11. Slightly Complicates Things

A/N: Sorry for not updating in a while but I just got huge writer's block, it's mostly gone and when you get to the end of the chapter please don't kill me. I promise the next chapter will be out sooner than seven months. I think. hides in closet

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Chapter 11: Slightly Complicates Things

-----------------------------------

"So what do we think?" Ripper asked leaning into Severus.

"I don't know. What are we thinking about?" Severus responded not looking up from the book he was reading.

"Ethan." Ripper prompted.

"I think he needs to quit trying to set his book on fire and actually study from it so he won't fail Charms." Severus said letting his voice carry over to where Ethan was kneeling on the snow.

"I am practicing Charms. The fire spell." Ethan said cheekily.

"It's not a spell if you use your lighter instead of your wand." Severus turned a page in his book.

"Spoil sport." Ethan whined but stopped attempting to light his textbook afire.

"I meant about Ethan knowing about whoever Marlic and that Hunter guy were talking about." Ripper whispered.

"Oh that," Severus frowned and sighed, "I don't know Ethan hasn't acted differently towards anyone lately." Severus put his book down and propped his chin on his hand. "Although of the people he's been spending more time with, I would have to say it was Lupin."

"Yeah but he likes Lupin and gets a kick from annoying the other two." Ripper shrugged.

"Don't you mean three?" Severus glanced at Ripper.

"Three? Oh you mean Pettigrew, nah that kid doesn't count. He's just part of the background. Never heard an insult once from his mouth. Besides he pretty much just does what Potter and Black tell him to do." Ripper said.

"I suppose, but still the week before the full moon is only two days away and my best bet is Lupin. Though that poses the question of why would he want Lupin." Severus surmised.

"Why who would want Remus?" Lily asked as she sat down next to Ripper.

"I could give you a couple reasons. The first being the fateful day we saw him in his knickers. Oh I still have dreams about that. Makes me get all the good tingles." Lydia smiled as she placed herself in Severus's lap.

"Lydia." Severus said calmly.

"Yes Sev dear." Lydia answered throwing her arms around Severus's neck.

"Would you kindly remove your arse from my person?" Severus asked in a polite voice.

"But it's so comfy here." Lydia pouted.

In one smooth motion Severus stood up with Lydia in his arms. She gave a shriek and tried to jump down but he held tight to her. He walked over to Ethan and dropped Lydia into his lap and then sat back down. "He's much more comfy than me."

Lydia hugged Ethan hello while looking at Severus and smirking, "Oh and you would know this how?"

"You know how cold those nights in the dungeon get…" Severus said with a straight face.

Lily's jaw dropped open and then Lydia nodded, "Yes me and Molly many times."

Ripper touched Lily on the shoulder, "They're joking." He then pointed at Ethan who's shoulders were shaking with laughter.

Lily paused for moment and then looked sad, "Aww and I had a great mental picture going." Now it was the boys' turn for the dropping of jaws while Lydia whooped with laughter.

"Score for Gryffindor."

-----------------------

"Hey Remy, can I talk to you?" Ethan asked as he caught up to Remus who was walking outside.

"Yeah. Sure. What's going on?" Remus said.

"Are the terrible tasteless trio around?" Ethan hooked an arm through Remus's.

"Are the tainted two around?" Remus said with a smile.

"Lake." Ethan answered.

"Courtyard. Which by my calculations means we should have about twenty minutes before the two elements collide and an explosion occurs." Remus said.

"Ravenclaw." Ethan coughed. Remus just rolled his eyes. Ethan smiled then he looked at the ground and frowned. "Umm I'm not sure what to say."

"Say about what?" Remus stopped and looked at Ethan.

"Well it's something that happened over winter break." Ethan paused long enough for Remus to get a quip in.

"Severus finally revealed his true feelings about you and now you and him are dating and you can't see me anymore. I knew it." Remus had a hand over his heart and a pained look on his face.

"Clearly I've been a bad influence on you." Ethan smiled. "I deserve a gold star." Then they turned as they heard a boom and a loud curse. "Seems your calculations were off Holmes that was only five minutes." Ethan said.

"Come on we need to stop them before a teacher finds them and takes points away…. again." Remus began jogging towards the sounds of fighting.

Ethan stayed behind and ran a hand through his hair, "I just wanted to tell you that Marlic and some guy probably named Hunter have plans to take you tomorrow so you need to be careful. Or on second thought go find Dumbledore and don't leave his sight until we convince him that Marlic is insane or something. You know nothing important." Ethan kicked the ground, "Fuck."

"Hey Ethan you coming?" Remus called. "I think my side has a snowball launcher and yours has a… actually I'm not sure what Severus and Ripper are using."

"Yeah I'm coming luv." Ethan said jogging to catch up with Remus.

Once Ethan and Remus were over the hill a man stepped out of the Forbidden Forest, "Well this slightly complicates things."

---------------------

"I am disappointed in every single one of you." Professor McGonagall said looking at the seven boys standing in a line.

"I'm kind of impressed." Professor Samoht said crossing his arms.

"Thomas." Professor McGonagall admonished.

"Oh come on Minerva your boys managed to spell together a snowball launcher and I don't know what the hell mine conjured up but it was bloody amazing." Professor Samoht said. "Besides no one got hurt."

Professor McGonagall looked pointedly at Ripper's busted lip and then shifted her gaze to Peter's black eye before settling on James's bruised cheek bone. "I beg to differ."

"Okay point taken Minerva but that's due more to spectacular aim than malice." Professor Samoht said smiling widely.

"Naivety does not suit you Thomas." McGonagall was now the one crossing her arms, although this was in annoyance. She went to grab the cigarette that Ethan had been twirling mindlessly between his fingers only to find it gone when she reached for it. She glared at Ethan and then said, "Detention tomorrow night for all of you and the day after for you Mister Rayne. I have told you about those."

Ethan gave a look of pure innocence, "But I don't have one Professor." He held up his empty hands.

Professor McGonagall sniffed loudly and then walked away. Professor Samoht gave a smirk, "Hey at least it's only one night. Now you all better scat before she comes back and takes away points." Then he too was gone.

"Thanks a lot Potter." Severus snarled.

"What it's not my fault. I'm not the one who broke her office window." James shot back.

"No that was your pet Pettigrew." Ripper gestured toward Peter who backed away slightly from both Ripper and James.

Sirius stepped closer to Peter, "It was your stupid shield that deflected the snowball."

The five boys continued to argue while Ethan smiled and muttered to himself, "McGonagall will work just as well as Dumbledore."

------------------------------

"Ethan we know that you know who it is. What are we going to do if we're all in detention?" Ripper demanded as the three Slytherins were walking slowly to their detention with McGonagall.

"Or should we be glad that he is also serving detention with us?" Severus quirked an eyebrow at Ethan.

Ethan smiled, "Right you are Sevvy boy. Come lads to detention." Severus and Ripper rolled their eyes but picked up their pace to stay with Ethan.

They entered McGonagall's classroom to find the four Gryffindor boys and McGonagall already there. The professor pointed at her animal cages, "Misters Pettigrew, Black, and Potter will be cleaning the cages, while Misters Giles and Snape will be grading first, second, third year homework papers. Get to work boys." Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James looked at Professor McGonagall in confusion. The Slytherin boys had a slight look of panic on their faces. "Now." McGonagall tapped a foot impatiently.

The boys slowly drifted to where their work was set out. Ethan and Remus took a step towards McGonagall. "Did you forget about Ethan and me ma'am?" Remus asked.

"No." McGonagall went to sit behind her desk and gestured towards the door. "Professor Marlic has requested your services. You two will be serving your detention with him tonight."

"No!" Ethan shouted. The Gryffindor boys looked at Ethan in surprise while Ripper and Severus's attention was fixed on the man in the doorway.

"Now Mister Rayne, don't worry. It's nothing too strenuous." Professor Marlic said. He strolled up to Ethan and put what looked like a light hand on the young man's neck. Ethan winced at the pressure at the back of his neck. He shot a panicked look at Severus and Ripper. Marlic began to walk away his palm still on the back of Ethan's neck. Ethan tried to yell something but Marlic's hand had covered part of his throat as soon as he turned them around. Ethan could barely get enough air to breathe. Marlic led them through his classroom to his office. The fire was already lit. The professor shut the door behind him and whispered a silencing spell before letting go of Ethan. "Stupefy!" Marlic pointed his wand at Ethan. The young student fell hard to the floor and Remus spun around to look down at his friend.

"What do you think you're doing?" Remus shouted.

"Stupefy!" This time Marlic's hex was directed at Remus and the boy fell down as well. Marlic quickly removed their wands and put them in the locked drawer of his desk. He opened his door and put a sign that said 'Experiment in progress Do not disturb'. He shut his door and locked it. Then he threw floo powder into the fire and called out, "Marlic Manor." Remus was shoved in first, then Ethan and after a quick glance around his room Marlic went as well and the fire blew out.


	12. Time Looking

A/N: This one's a long one, well long for me anyway. I've been working on it for the past week and nearly lost the entire thing when my memory stick broke.

So enjoy.

Chapter 12: Time Looking

"Sev!" Ripper hissed through his teeth. "We have to tell McGonagall."

Ripper started to get out of his seat but Severus pulled him back down. "And what pray tell do we say to her, mmmm? Marlic has kidnapped Eth and Lupin and has some diabolic scheme involving Lupin and the coming full moon."

"We have to do something. We can't just sit here and do nothing." Ripper gripped his quill tightly. It was slowly breaking in half.

"Look Ripper, McGonagall's not going to let us leave detention early no matter what we say." Severus began marking the papers in front of him again when McGonagall glanced in their direction. "We're Slytherins, Ethan is a Slytherin, we can save him no problem. Severus paused, "We can probably save Lupin as well but I make no guarantees about Gryffindors."

"So what's the plan then?" Ripper muttered under his breath.

"Well first we wait until we get out of detention. Then we go looking for Marlic." Severus whispered back.

"What do we say to Marlic if we find him? What the hell did you do to our friend tell us or we'll rip your heart out through your nose and make you eat it…. Actually let's go with that. I like that plan." Ripper said.

"No," Severus shook his head. "We have to act like stupid little kids who can't find their friend and are looking in the last place we knew where he was. If he says something like oh I sent them off to bed or some shit then we say thanks and walk away."

"Why?" Ripper asked.

"Because we won't be able to help anyone if he thinks we know something." Severus answered. "Then we do a locater spell."

"No then we get the girls." Ripper countered.

"What?" Severus looked at Ripper in confusion.

"We are going to need help on this one. Better to have four brains then two. Lydia and Lily will help." Ripper insisted. Severus scowled at Ripper. "It's okay to ask for help." Ripper said.

"Fine." Severus growled, "But only them."

"Alright boys, your detention is over. Next time think carefully before decided to have a full out snowball war." Professor McGonagall said standing behind her desk. The four Gryffindor boys were quick to rush out the door.

Severus and Ripper walked out of McGonagall's classroom and were making their way down the hall when they bumped into Professor Marlic. "Pr- pr- professor Marlic." Ripper stuttered.

Severus stepped in front of Ripper, "We were just about to go looking for you. Did you let Ethan and Lupin out from their detention yet?"

Professor Marlic looked at the two boys and smiled, "Yes they just finished about ten minutes ago. I think I heard them say something about taking a walk. So you might want to look outside."

"Thank you Professor, we'll do that." Severus said. Marlic nodded at him and then continued down the hallway. Severus turned to Ripper, "What were you stuttering for?"

Ripper quirked an eyebrow and held up a small glass orb that was glowing red, "Guess who was lying?"

"You had a lie-detector on you?" Severus asked.

"Yep. I just needed you to step in front of me while I activated it. I knew you would, if you thought I was going to mess it up. I wanted to be sure he was lying. Because how stupid would we have looked if he was actually telling the truth?" Ripper said.

"True." Severus shrugged. "So now we find Lydia and Lily right?"

"Yeah, you take the Slytherin common room, I'll take Gryffindor." Ripper said. "I'll bring Lily down to the Slytherin's den."

"Why do you get Lily?" Severus asked.

"Because of the two of us, I think I'll survive going into the pit of lions," Ripper paused for dramatic affect, "and they hate me slightly less than you."

"Right," Severus started jogging towards the dungeons, "See you in twenty."

Ripper took a deep breath, "Right." He began to make his way to the Gryffindor's quarters. He waited outside the portrait of the fat lady until a first year opened the door. Then he followed behind him. If Ripper was lucky no one would notice him. It was rather late and he had left his cloak and tie that declared him a Slytherin outside the common room.

"What do you think you're doing in here?" said a voice from one of the couches.

"Oh shit." Ripper muttered as he saw James and Sirius rise from one of the couches. Ripper looked around the room and noticed a girl who was in one of his classes. "Cassie could you be a dear and run and get Lily for me?"

Cassie put down her quill, "Sure thing Ripper. Try not to beat up Potter too much, I still want to win the quidditch cup."

"Hey!" James yelled. Cassie stuck her tongue out at James before running up the stairs.

Sirius meanwhile had been walking towards Ripper, "Think you can just walk in here like you own everything. You've got another thing coming Giles."

Ripper glared at Sirius, "Normally Black, I'd be happy to kick your ass but I'm in a bit of a hurry, so if you could just hold your violent tendencies in check for five minutes." Ripper paused, "Wait that might be too much to ask for, about two minutes?"

"Why you—" Sirius started to growl.

"Ripper." Ripper looked up to the top of the steps to see Lily. She smiled as she walked down the steps. Then she cringed, "Ripper look out!"

He turned just in time to get a fist to the stomach. Ripper grunted with the impact but he managed to catch the fist aimed at his face. "I do not have the time to bloody your face, so piss off." Ripper shouted before shoving Sirius away.

"Like you could." Sirius snorted.

"You're just scared you'll lose against us." James said. Ripper turned to Lily and took her hand and began to lead her out of the room. "Hey we weren't done here." James shouted. Ripper ignored him and continued pulling Lily towards the door. "I'm talking to you!" James grabbed Ripper's arm just as the two had reached the doorway.

Ripper snatched his arm back, "I suggest you look to your friends first before talking to me." Then he and Lily walked out the door.

"What the hell does he mean by that?" Sirius wondered.

Peter stood up from where he had been sitting on the couch, "How come Remus isn't back yet?"

------------------------------

Severus was quickly walking down to the dungeons. He walked fast enough that his cloak was billowing behind him. "Venomous fangs." Severus growled at the portrait guarding the door. Severus had to stop himself from yanking the door open faster. As he stepped into the common room, his eyes scanned for Lydia. Instead he saw Molly talking to a few of the fifth years. "Molly." Severus said interrupting their conversation.

"Oh hello Sev, what's wrong?" Molly asked.

"Do you know where Lydia is?" Severus said.

"Uh yeah, I think she's up in her room." Molly pointed in the direction of the stairs. "Do you want me to get her for you?"

"If you would." Severus responded. Molly nodded her head and began to walk up the stairs. Severus stepped away from the fifth years and went in front of the fire place. He slowly began to pace there.

"Could you not pace there I'm trying to read." A boy on the couch said after a minute. Severus looked at him glared. The boy, obviously valuing his life, got up saying, "Actually I just finished so never mind."

Five minutes later Lydia came down the stairs, "Sev, Molly said you wanted to talk to me?"

"As soon as Ripper and Lily get here." Severus said as he continued pacing.

Lydia sat down on the couch and watched Severus for a minute, "You're ruining the carpet." Severus turned his glare on Lydia. "I didn't say you should stop, I was merely stating the obvious." Severus continued glaring. Lydia crossed her arms, "Although if you keep glaring at me, I'll do something to change your expression."

Severus turned to look at the door which was admitting Lily and Ripper. "Finally." Severus muttered as he went over to meet them.

A few of the Slytherins looked up, "What is she doing in here?"

Lily hissed at them and most of them shrugged and went back to what they were doing. "All right Lily and Ripper are here, what did you want to tell me." Lydia asked.

"Come on, let's go up to our room." Ripper said grabbing the two girls' hands. He led the way up to their room. As he tried to close the door, it kept popping back open. "What the fuck?" Ripper shouted.

Lily gave a small chuckle, "You can't close the door if you have a girl in the room."

"That just put a damper on the rest of my years here." Ripper sighed.

"You think that's bad. We can't even get boys in our rooms. At least you guys can grope with the door mostly closed." Lydia said.

"Ripper!" Severus didn't shout but the tone of his voice caught everyone's attention.

"Right, sorry Sev." Ripper shook his head, "We need your help. Ethan got taken. Lupin as well."

"What?" Lily and Lydia said.

"Shhh! Quiet, the door's open remember." Ripper said.

"Over Christmas break, we heard Professor Marlic talking to someone about kidnapping one of the students, a week before the full moon. Ripper and I didn't know who he was talking about but Ethan did. He was talking about Lupin. Guess what today is?" Severus was tapping a foot impatiently.

"A week before the full moon. But how do you know that Ethan and Remus were taken. Maybe they're just out, having their wicked way with each other." Lily exchanged a look with Lydia.

"You know how we had detention tonight with McGonagall." Ripper paused.

"Yeah sure everyone heard about your snowball war and next time you better include me." Lydia said.

"Marlic came and took Ethan and Lupin, said he needed their help." Ripper said.

"I knew Marlic was evil he was always such a prick to Remus. We have to save them, what do we do?" Lily asked.

"Wait a minute," Lydia held up her hands, "how do you know he took them. Do you go look for them or did you all just assume?"

They all looked to the hall were it sounded like someone was having a sneezing fit right in front of their room, except no one was there. Ripper waved a hand at the doorway which seemed clear, "Accio!" There were muffled yells and a whooshing sound as something flew through the door. Half way to Ripper's feet James, Sirius, and Peter were revealed as something shimmery fell from their flying bodies. Lydia quickly shut the door as much as it would close.

Severus picked up the invisibility cloak, while Lily stood over the three Gryffindors with her hands on her hips. "Do you three have a death wish? What do you think you're doing here?"

James stood up first, "We couldn't find Remus, we thought Giles knew something so we followed you."

"Good thing, we did. We'll save Remus and don't worry we'll save Rayne as well. Not that you would worry, it's not like you care about your own." Sirius said as he stood up.

Ripper grabbed Sirius by his cloak and shoved him against a wall, "Ethan is my brother. If you think I'm letting you three dorks go after them alone, you've got another thing coming." Ripper let go of the boy, "And just so you know, Slytherins always look after their own."

"Well," Sirius straightened his cloak, "we're not going to let you save them alone."

"Here's an idea," Lily said, "how about we all work together on saving them?"

Everyone was about to open their mouth and disagree, when the door started to open. "Hey Giles—"

Ripper quickly shoved the boy who was about to come into their room outside, "Lestrange I'm kind of busy here, do you mind?"

"What you got a girl in there or something Giles?" Rabastan Lestrange tried to crane his head around Ripper to see into the room.

"Rabastan, I'm busy. Go away!" Ripper said.

Rabastan sneered at Ripper, "Who stuck their wand up your ass?" Then he turned around and walked away.

Ripper walked back into his room and let out a breath. "Here's another idea, we go somewhere, where we won't get our arses hexed if a Slytherin finds us." Lily grabbed the invisibility cloak from Severus. "Let's get out of here. You three wear the invisibility cloak. I will be holding on to the edge of the cloak in case you get any ideas. Got it?" Lily had her hands on her hips again.

"Yeah all right, Evans." James said as he took the cloak and in a swinging arc covered himself, Sirius, and Peter. Then he uncovered his hand so Lily could see where part of the cloak was. "You can hold my hand if you like?"

Lily glared, "Don't get cute Potter." She took hold of the fabric and everyone slowly made their way out of the room. Lydia stood on the other side of the Gryffindors with Ripper in front of them and Severus behind them. They made it out of the common room without incident.

"Where do we go? It'll be past curfew soon." Severus said as James took off his invisibility cloak. "I don't think there's enough room for all of us under Potter's cloak."

"Not with your huge nose there's not." James sneered.

Severus raised his wand but Lily grabbed his wrist, "Okay can you boys stop being assholes just for a minute." Lily leaned to the side, "And Lydia stop trying to sneak up behind James." Lydia gave a shrug while James inched a few steps back to keep her in his sights. "Look we a temporary truce, just for tonight. We have a lot better chance of saving Ethan and Remus if we all work together."

"Without Lupin they don't have a brain." Severus said and got smacked.

"Your arguing and bickering isn't helping either of them at the moment. The longer we stand here, the less chance we have of finding them." Lily crossed her arms.

"All right." Lydia said.

"Evan's right." James said at nearly the same time.

"Okay." Peter squeaked. Severus gave a non-committed shrug.

"Soon as we find them and save them, the truce is over." Sirius held out a hand to Ripper.

"And we get Marlic fired," Ripper shook Sirius's hand. "agreed." The two boys let go of each other after a second.

"I know a room we can go to and figure this out." James went to the head of the group and led them away from the dungeons. He stopped where there where no doors.

"Stup—" Ripper started to say but James held up a hand. The Gryffindor boy walked in front of the wall three times with his eyes closed. A door appeared and James raised an eyebrow at Ripper while gesturing for him to go into inside with a bow. Ripper opened the door and looked into the room. "Neat trick."

"What sort of room is this?" Lily asked. She was the last one to enter the room and the door shut behind her. The room looked small at the moment and only held two couches and a few chairs placed in a circle.

"Room of Requirement m'dear. What we require it gives." Sirius said sitting on one of the couches. Everyone else sat down as well.

"You two said that Remus and Eth weren't on the castle grounds. How do you know?" Lydia asked.

James looked at Peter who shook his head no, then he looked at Sirius who scowled but nodded his head. Suddenly a table appeared in the middle of the circle. James laid down a piece of paper on the table.

Ripper, Severus, Lydia, and Lily all leaned over the table to look at the paper. "Wow, it's a map of the entire castle." Lily gasped

"More than that luv, look it shows all the people in the castle." Ripper said pointing to the part of the map that showed them, "Who'd you steal this from Black?"

Sirius started to reply but Severus spoke first, "We need to see a bigger image." James tapped the map and it shrunk so that it showed the castle, and the boundaries of the castle. "No, more."

"I know what you're thinking." Lily said and grabbing the map, "We need one of these walls covered with parchment."

"Okay." James said and closed his eyes.

Lily stood up and placed the map on the wall with a spell, "I don't think I can do it, with wand magic. It would take too long. I'd have to do it spell by spell."

"Ripper?" Severus asked. By now everyone was standing behind Lily and Severus looking at the wall.

"I'll try but I'll have to throw a lot of power at it. Cause I'm just guessing here." Ripper held a hand an inch from the map and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes they were tinged black. Then he brushed his hand across the blank paper and whispered, "Acquiro."

At first nothing happened, then slowly black ink started to cover the blank wall. The Gryffindors and Slytherins watched in awe as the wall became an enormous map with Hogwarts at his center. Their mouths dropped even more when they looked closer and could see where all the people were.

"It worked." Severus cracked a smile.

"Yeah okay, we have a bigger map now. How is that going to help us, they could be anywhere." Sirius crossed his arms.

"It has all the same properties as your map, and it's certainly not going to hurt." Severus shot back.

"I better be able to get my map back." James growled.

"Shut up and be happy that it didn't explode." Ripper groaned as he tried to breathe.

"What!" James shouted.

"Both of you shout it and look for Ethan and Remus." Lily yelled as her eyes searched the map looking for the names, Ethan Rayne and Remus Lupin.

For about ten minutes nobody said anything, everyone was too busy looking at the map. "Maybe we should give up." Peter said quietly.

"Say that again Pettigrew and I'll hex you into oblivion." Severus sneered his gaze never leaving the wall.

"You know this would be a lot easier, if we could just say 'show us Remus Lupin and Ethan Rayne please' and…" Lily trailed off as a part of the map grew larger. Then they were looking at Ethan and Remus's slightly moving names. Lily turned and kicked James in the shins, "Fucking hell Potter, you couldn't have told us that the map did this ten minutes ago. We wouldn't have had to waste time looking."

James was hopping holding his leg, "I forgot it could do this. It was something Remus has been working on and it doesn't always work."

Ripper and Sirius were making the map slightly smaller so they could see, "They're in Hogsmeade." They said together.

---------------a little bit earlier-----------

Ethan grimaced as he regained consciousness. He looked around. He saw a room with no windows or doors, no furniture, and Remus lying beside him. "Crap!"

"Ethan." Remus called.

"Yeah Remy I'm here." Ethan responded.

"Where are we?" Remus asked.

"No idea but," It was at this point that Ethan discovered the chain around his ankle. "we need to get out of here."

"How, there's no door. We're chained and I don't have my wand, which probably means you don't have yours either." Remus sighed.

"One problem at a time luv, starting with the chains." Ethan said pulling lock picks from his pocket. He inserted the picks into the keyhole, then cursed when they melted in his hands. "Fine we'll try it this way," Ethan held his hand over the chain, "Quasso!" Nothing happened. "This may be a bigger problem then I thought it was. Situation needs to be upgraded. Shit."

Suddenly a section of the wall opened and a man stepped through. This was the man that they had seen every once and a while hanging around Professor Marlic. He had been dressed up as a hunter at Halloween. Well he didn't look so muck like a hunter now except for the shotgun in his hands.

"Those chains are lockpick-proof, and magic doesn't do shit to them. And this room is warded so that magic can't be done inside. Which is why I have a shotgun, also because it's much better than a flimsy stick." The man said stroking his shotgun.

"Compensating much? Deranged inbred." Ethan muttered rolling his eyes.

"What'd you say?" The man swung the gun in Ethan's direction.

"What do you want with us?" Remus asked gaining the man's attention.

"Him," He gestured to Ethan, "we took because he knew we were gonna grab you. Probably going to sell him or something. As for you," The man leaned in close to Remus. "did you know that werewolf is considered quite the delicacy in some circles."

"Oh fuck!" Ethan whispered.

--------

Latin translations

Aquiro—aquire

Quasso—break


	13. Keeping Secrets

A/N: The next chapter should be much longer, I think.

-------------------------

Chapter 13: Keeping Secrets

---

"I don't like this plan." Peter whined.

"Too freaking bad Pettigrew. Quit your whining and move it." Lily said. "We don't have all night."

"But—" Peter started to say.

"We don't know how long it will take to get her to Lydia and Marlic. So come on." Lily said as they hurried through the halls. She stopped in front of one of the doors and timidly knocked on the door to McGonagall's room. She turned to the smaller boy, "Remember you don't say anything. I will do all the talking."

The door opened and revealed Professor McGonagall, "Children what are you doing out of bed?"

"It's Lydia Professor." Lily said.

"Miss Zabini?" McGonagall asked.

"We can't find her." Peter said.

Lily glared at Peter and then turned back to their teacher, "She said she was going to talk to Professor Marlic and then we were going to have a sleep over. But she hasn't come back yet. And we didn't want to go wandering around in the middle of the night looking for her."

"Well if you like, I can go to Professor Marlic and ask him if he's seen her." Professor McGonagall said smiling.

"Can we come with you, we're very worried. This isn't like Lydia at all." Lily gave McGonagall a puppy dog look that would melt an igloo.

McGonagall smiled slightly, "Very well, come along then."

"Thank you Professor." Peter said as they hurried after her. As they walked down the halls they heard voices.

"I know you did something to Remus and Ethan. They never came back after their detention with you."

"You know nothing little girl."

"Oh yeah, then why don't I just get Professor Dumbledore huh? Who do you think he's going to blame when he can't find them?"

"He's not going to believe you over me."

"Fine then, I'll go get him, maybe McGonagall too."

"I can't have that, what is this? First Mister Rayne now you. Guess I'll just have to… Stupef—"

"Holy shit!" Lydia yelled as she came diving out of a doorway.

"What in the world?" McGonagall ran into the room with her wand drawn. "Andrew! What is the meaning of this?"

Professor Marlic lowered his wand, "Minerva, I—"

"Trying to a hex a student and what is this about Misters Rayne and Lupin." McGonagall asked while Lydia, Lily, and Peter peered around the doorframe.

"Get Dumbledore, you dumbwitted fool! Did you forget the plan?" Lydia hissed at Peter.

"Oh right." Peter said before taking off running.

"He kidnapped them." Lily said.

"No I didn't." Marlic insisted.

"Oh yeah, then why'd you try to curse me huh?" Lydia stepped into the room a little bit. "If you didn't do anything then why wouldn't you want to talk to the Headmaster?"

"Minerva—" Marlic started to say.

"The child has a point Andrew and I heard your earlier conversation between you and Miss Zabini." Minerva said.

"Well in that case," Marlic began, "Stup—"

"I rather think not Andrew." Dumbledore entered the room and Marlic's wand flew into his hand. Peter and Professor Samoht followed him through the door.

"Oh shit." Marlic muttered as he looked for an escape route. The three children quietly walked into the room and stood in the corner out of the way. Hoping they would either be allowed to stay or be forgotten.

"Sit Andrew." Dumbledore commanded. "I will bind you if necessary." Marlic sat on one of the desk tops and crossed his arms. He rather looked like a pouting five year old. "Now what is this about Misters Lupin and Rayne?" Dumbledore asked.

Marlic shrugged and mumbled, "I don't know."

"Thomas if you would please administer the verisatum." Dumbledore stepped to the side to allow Samoht to pass.

"Of course Headmaster." Samoht said after pulling a vial from his pocket. He approached his fellow professor cautiously. "Now Andy if you really don't know anything then you have nothing to worry about." Samoht gripped Marlic's arm when he tried to move. "However if you've done something to one of my Slytherins, I'll rip out your throat." He whispered before forcing the liquid down the struggling man's throat. Marlic coughed and tried to shove Samoht away. Then he became docile and his eyes gained a glazed over look.

"Thank you Thomas." Dumbledore stepped closer to Marlic, "Have you done something to Misters Lupin and Rayne?"

"Not yet." Marlic said in a dead sort of voice.

"Did you take them?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes." Marlic said.

"Why?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Because of what he is, people will pay huge money for that. Rayne just overheard. I had to take him as well. I figured I'd sell him off to somebody who wants a slave. Won't make as big as a profit compared to Lupin though." Marlic shrugged.

"How could you think we wouldn't notice?" McGonagall asked outraged.

Marlic gave a weird kind of laugh, "Didn't notice the centaurs, or the merpeople, or any other creature I took. Why would you notice that one?"

"Are you working with anyone else?" Samoht growled, "I need to know who else I should kill."

"Jake Hunter."

"Where are the boys now?" Dumbledore asked.

"In Hogsmeade."

"Yes! We were right." Peter exclaimed suddenly.

Lily looked at Peter in anger, "Shut up will you!"

Dumbledore turned to Samoht who was slowly creeping closer to Marlic with his fists clenched, "Thomas calm down, the boys will be alright. Go owl the aurors, quickly."

"Yes Headmaster." Samoht said before running out of the room.

"Now children," Dumbledore turned to Lily, Peter, and Lydia, "it occurs to me, where might young Misters Snape, Giles, Black, and Potter be?"

"Asleep?" Lily said.

"How should I know?" Lydia shrugged.

"In Hogsmeade saving Remus and Rayne." Peter squeaked.

"Oh dear." Dumbledore said.

Lydia turned to Peter and hissed, "You really suck at keeping secrets don't you!"


	14. Improvisation

Chapter 14: Improvisation

"Okay we've got thirty minutes before the girls and Pettigrew get McGonagall. So we need to hurry." Ripper said as they ran through a tunnel that led to Hogsmeade.

"I don't think it was a good idea to leave Peter." James said.

"Neither do I, he'll probably screw the whole thing up." Severus snapped back.

"Not what I meant Snivellus." James said.

"Really I had no idea." Severus deadpanned.

"Save your breath for running." Sirius huffed. It took them about eight minutes to reach Hogsmeade.

"Come on the house is this way." Ripper took the lead and the other boys fell into a line behind him. They stopped behind a row of houses and quietly jumped over a fence where the backyard was overgrown with plants. "If one of these plants grab me, I'm lighting it on fire." Ripper muttered.

"Don't say such a thing, do you know how many of these plants can be used in potions?" Severus admonished.

"A lot?" Ripper shrugged as he knelt before the backdoor.

"Exactly, now stop channeling Eth and open the door." Severus said.

Ripper nodded and in a minute, he looked up at James, "It's unlocked, go."

James waited until Ripper moved aside then he waved his wand at the door, "Patefacio!"

James opened the door and stepped back, "Go Sirius."

Sirius slipped on James's invisibility cloak and then snuck into the house. The other three boys kneeled outside the door. Ripper began whispering, "Come on, come on, come on." Under his breath until James smacked him on the arm.

Sirius's head reappeared at the door after a minute, "He's asleep in front of a, ummm, thing with moving pictures on the second floor."

"Perfect Eth and Lupin are on first floor. Let's go." Once again Ripper took the lead. "Right, a left, and here we are." Ripper stopped in front of a wall that had a clear piece of glass that let you see into the room. He looked in and saw Ethan and Remus sitting chained to the floor. Ripper waved his wand, "Patefacio!"

The door opened and Ripper and Severus quickly entered. James followed but Sirius stopped to take off his shoe and place it against the edge of the wall where the door closed. Ethan smiled, "Glad you could make it boys, why'd you bring the Gryffs?"

"Please like they could have got here without our help." James said as he knelt next to Remus, "Hey Remus how you doing?"

"I'm fine James." Remus said and then pulled at the chain around his ankle, "Could you guys get this off me. Marlic took our wands and we can't do magic in here."

"Oh well that's simple enough." Severus said and went outside of the room. He came back in with a saw and walked toward Ethan.

"Way to think outside the box mon héro." Ethan said.

Severus rolled his eyes, "And we're back to French again."

"Why is there a shoe against the wall?" Ripper asked and then looked down at Sirius's shoeless foot.

"Do you want to get stuck in here?" Sirius said as he was rolling up the invisibility cloak.

"Oh, good thought." Ripper said.

"What the hell is going on in here!"

Ripper quickly grabbed the cloak out of Sirius's hands and threw it over both himself and Sirius. "What are you—" Sirius started to say before Ripper put a hand over his mouth.

"Shut up. We might need an element of surprise." Ripper whispered and he slowly pulled the other boy back into the corner.

Jake Hunter stepped into the room. "Well what do we have here?" He pointed his shotgun at Severus. "Put down the saw and move next to him." Jake said gesturing towards James who stood up. Severus slowly placed the saw on the ground and walked over to stand slightly in front of James. "Isn't this interesting? Now how did you two get in here?" Jake asked.

"You really aught to invest in better spells." James said.

"And deadbolts." Severus added.

Jake laughed, "It looks like we have two more boys to sell, more money for me."

"You're a dork." Ethan said gaining the man's attention. "I mean really that's your answer. Boys for sale, how very Oliver Twist of you." Ethan shook his head, "I'm so embarrassed that we got caught by you, then again you are working with Marlic. That must be the reason it's actually worked so far."

While Jake was getting angrier, Severus was taking the time to slip his wand into his hand. He raised his wand to say a curse. However Jake noticed this movement and with a grin pulled the trigger of his gun.

"No!" Ethan screamed at the same time James grabbed Severus and threw themselves to the side. Two howls of pain filled the air as the bullet that was aimed for Severus's chest grazed both boys' arms.

"I'm no fool, you can't take me." Jake smiled meanly.

"Oh really?" Ripper appeared on Jake's left side and smacked the shotgun out of his hands. And Sirius appeared on his right to deliver a fist to Jake's jaw. As he fell down, Ripper waved his wand, "Dormio!"

"That was a good plan." Ethan said as he picked up the saw and began sawing at the chain.

Severus sat up clutching his arm, "I don't remember me getting shot being part of the plan."

"Well that was great improvisation then." Ethan handed Remus the saw as his chain broke. He stood up and hugged Ripper and then hugged Severus as well. "My saviors," He looked at Sirius and James and wrinkled his nose, "and helpers to my saviors. Thanks."

"Let's get out of here." Sirius said once Remus had sawed through his chain. At that moment Dumbledore and several aurors burst into the room. The aurors looked around in confusion while Dumbledore merely smiled at the boys. "It's cool we've got it under control guys." Sirius grinned.

"So it would seem. However perhaps we should get Misters Potter and Snape to the infirmary." Dumbledore said.

"What!" James and Severus looked up at the same time.

"No no I'm fine." Severus shook his head.

"It's just a flesh wound." James insisted at the same time.

Severus glanced at James and hissed, "Don't admit to having any wounds."

"Please take care of Mister Hunter." Dumbledore said turning to the aurors who nodded and picked up Jake. "Come along boys let's get back to Hogwarts."

Ripper went over to help Severus and Sirius helped James up. Dumbledore led the way out of the room and the boys followed him. Well Remus and Ethan followed him, Severus and James had to be dragged.

"Really the infirmary is not necessary Headmaster." Severus said as they climbed into one of the horseless carriages.

"Dear, you've ruined Ripper's favorite shirt," Ethan pointed to blood running down Severus's arm onto Ripper's shirt. "you're going to the nurse."

Severus tried to cross his arms and sulk but stopped when a burst of pain ran down his arm. He grimaced and both of his friends gave a look that clearly said, 'you're going'. The injured boy stuck out his bottom lip, "Still not going."

"Misses Evans, Zabini and Mister Pettigrew are all quite worried about you." Dumbledore said after a moment.

Remus looked up, "Where is Peter?"

"We left him at the school, he would have ruined the whole thing." Ripper said.

"We left him to make sure the girls would be okay." Sirius corrected with a glare in Ripper's direction.

"Mmmhmm sure, whatever you say you deluded prat." Ripper rolled his eyes.

"Scum eating snake." Sirius hissed back.

"Ugly unimaginative big headed idiot." Ripper said.

"Come on guys you all just worked together to save me and Ethan don't you think you could act civil towards each other?" Remus asked before Sirius could respond.

The four boys looked at each other and immediately shook their heads. Ethan put an arm around Remus, "Remy it's when you say things like that, that show why you weren't put into Ravenclaw."

-----------------------

Lily and Lydia both were pacing in the infirmary waiting for the boys to return. Peter was sitting quietly on one of the beds. The door swung open and the girls rushed forward to hug Remus and Ethan.

"You're okay. We were so worried." Lily said after she let them go.

"Yeah you idiot don't ever get your self kidnapped again. Even if you were trying to save your boyfriend. You are not a Gryffindor." Lydia slapped Ethan on the back of the head.

"Sorry luv won't happen again. Now if you lovely ladies could step back we need to get Sev patched up." Ethan said gently leading them away from the door to one of the beds.

"Oh my god is Sev okay?" Lily asked.

"Put me down you dunderhead! I do not need to go to in there. I'm fine! Ripper I will hex your ass off if you do not put me down this second!"

The girls and Ethan turned to see Ripper carrying Severus like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. Ripper dropped Severus on the hospital bed that Ethan was leaning against. "Now you sit here and let the nice nurse fix you." Ripper shoved Severus back onto the bed when he tried to get up.

"Sev what happened to your arm?" Lydia asked.

"Are you okay?" Lily laid a hand Severus's shoulder.

"Nothing happened, I'm in perfect health." Severus said trying to get off the bed so he could run away.

Ethan joined in trying to keep the struggling boy in bed, "We can see the blood running down your arm hun."

Lydia solved the problem by getting on the bed and sitting on Severus. "You are not going anywhere until you get your arm looked at. And that's that." Then she crossed her arms.

Severus tried once more to move and then sighed, "You know for such a skinny girl, you're surprisingly heavy."

"That's kinda insulting and complementary at the same time." Lily said.

"Yeah our Sev's good at that type of thing." Ripper sat on the edge of the bed.

"I'm glad that you're all okay," Lily paused and sat at the foot of the bed, "well mostly unharmed anyway."

Ethan sat down on the bed on the other side of Severus, "Don't worry he'll be good in no time." He slid an arm around Severus.

"Hey I'm good now, we can go." Severus said. His friends glared at him and he rolled his eyes. "It'll heal on its own, I have great clotting abilities." When Lydia showed no signs of moving, he sighed, "How about I give you all ten galleons if you let me go." They all shook their heads no. "Twenty?"

"Hey look the nurse is here." Ethan said.

"You all suck."


	15. A Letter

A/N: Sorry for the wait guys you would not believe the writers block I had with this chapter. Alas this ride is almost over only one more chapter after this one.

Chapter 15: The Letter

-----------------------------

"I swear to Merlin, I've been more outside in the past six months, then I have for most of my life." Severus said as he was pulled out of the castle by Lily and Lydia. Ripper was walking ahead of them.

"Yes but now the snow is gone. Completely gone. We must observe this phenomenon. Besides there might be new plants uncovered by the melting snow that you can study for possible use for potions, don't you want to go check them out?" Ripper turned around so he could face Severus as he tried to cajole him.

"Lily could you let go of my arm for a moment, I need to hex Ripper." Severus asked coolly.

Lily merely tightened her hold, "But he's right, plus it's the weekend and so nice outside."

Lydia shook her head at the Gryffindor girl, "That's no way to tempt a snake."

"Um how about, I borrowed one of your potions books but I think I left it outside. Can you help me look?" Lily smiled.

"Better. We'll practice more later." Lydia let go of Severus to push him by a big shady tree that Ripper stopped at. Severus caught himself against the tree. He pulled out his wand and before Lydia could duck, he muttered a spell. Lydia let out a shriek as pink flowers began to fall upon her head. She hurriedly brushed them off. "Get them off!" Lily laughed as she helped Lydia get rid of the flowers. Lydia glared at the pile of flowers before lighting them on fire. "Burn in hell."

Ripper sat down next to Severus as they watched Lydia cackle over her pile of dead flowers. "Where did Eth go?" Ripper asked.

Lily, who was now trying to climb the tree, answered. "He said something about a mission. Then he ran off."

Severus crossed his arms, "Well this mission had better not get his arse kidnapped again, or else I'm handcuffing him to Lydia."

Lydia looked up from the pile of ashes. "Why me?"

Ripper stopped trying to prevent Lily from climbing the tree, by playfully yanking at her foot, to answer. "Come on, use your Slytherin mind. You would never let him get kidnapped. You'd knock some sense into him before he could come up with a noble plan as oppose to a smart one."

"Got that right." Lydia nodded.

After kicking Ripper's hand away a couple of times, Lily managed to get up into the branches of the tree. "Apparently it was a retrieval mission."

Severus snorted, "That's what it was last time. And look what happened." He looked down at his now healed arm.

"Hey look who I rescued." Ethan said as he came up the hill.

"Figures it would be him. Hey Remus, how's it going?" Lydia waved.

"Well…" Remus looked at Ethan, who tried to look as innocent as possible.

"What'd he do?" Ripper raised an eyebrow.

"Me? I didn't do anything. I merely rescued him from the terrible trio and brought him here." Ethan said as he sat down.

Remus sat down next to Ethan, who took his hand. "Yea and what he's not saying is that as I was walking with Sirius, James, and Peter, he grabbed me. He waited until they were gone. Then we came here. I estimate 15 minutes before they realize I'm gone and 20 before they find me."

"It could have been worse." Lily said as she swung her leg nearly kicking Ripper in the back of the head. "He could have shoved you all in a closet. Then pulled only you out before locking the closet."

Lydia, Ripper, Severus, and Remus all stared at Lily. Ethan spoke first, "Hey don't go stealing my notes." They looked at him and laughed.

"I imagine if you did that, they would find me reasonable quicker. This plan was much better." Remus said nudging Ethan's shoulder with his.

Lydia had finished burning the ashes of the flowers and placed herself in Severus's lap. He raised an eyebrow at her, "You want more flowers then?"

"You'll be covered with flowers too." Lydia said.

Severus seemed to consider this but before he could do anything Ripper pulled Lydia out of his lap and into his own. "Well if you're not going to appreciate a beautiful girl in your lap, then I sure will." Ripper smirked at her, "Hello gorgeous."

"Flatter will get you nowhere Ripper." Lydia laughed.

"Presents on the other hand…" Ethan chimed in.

Lydia stuck out here tongue out at him, "You know me so well."

"A musketeer must always know his king." Ethan smiled.

"I can't believe people are still calling you three that." Remus said.

"Hey it's classy, way better than the Marauders." Ethan smiled to show he was kidding, while Remus just laughed and tried shove Ethan down the hill. Ethan managed to pin Remus down by nearly laying on top of him.

Before Remus could retaliate a loud screech turned everyone's eyes to the sky. The owl went straight to Ripper. "Shit." He muttered as he took the letter from the owl. The owl nipped Ripper before flying off.

Ethan got off of Remus, "What is it?" Ripper didn't answer he just opened the letter and read it. Ethan walked over to his step brother, "Ripper, what does it say?" When he didn't answer Ethan snatched the letter.

"I'm sorry Eth." Ripper said.

"No. This can't be happening." Ethan dropped the letter.

Ripper took a step towards him, "Ethan it's going to be okay."

Ethan shoved him away, "No it won't! My mother is dead." Lydia's hand flew to her mouth and Lily jumped down from the tree. Severus got up from the ground as well.

"Oh god Ethan I'm so sorry." Remus said sitting up.

Ethan focused only on Ripper as his eyes started to bleed black. "Do you really think your father will let me stay in his house? He'll kick me out as soon as we're back in London or worse keep me around as a punching bag." Ripper tried to say something again but Ethan didn't let him. "You can't change his mind about anything. He won't listen to you. You think he cares about me, his second wife's bastard son? Her being dead changes nothing about how he feels about me!"

Ripper tried to grab Ethan shoulders but he kept getting shoved away. They struggled a bit before Ripper managed to hold Ethan against the tree. "Ethan! Listen to me. I am not going to let him touch you. And if he kicks you out I'm going too." Ripper grinned, "After we've stolen some of his precious artifacts and money, huh?" Ethan gave a small laugh.

Lydia punched Ethan in the shoulder, "You better believe that if your father kicks you out, you're staying at my house mate."

Lily moved Ripper to the side so she could hug Ethan, "Or mine." As she let go she glanced at Ripper, "That goes for you too."

Severus crossed his arms, "If you're dad does anything, owl me and I'll hex him in the most painful place possible. Also you guys are welcome to stay with me and my mum anytime."

Remus stepped into their circle and took Ethan's hand, "You've got an open invitation to my house too. Not to mention I bet all of the girls in Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and half of the girls in Gryffindor would make the same offer. Besides school doesn't let out for another two months."

Ethan's eyes had started to turn normal but at that they turned pitch black, "He wants us to come home on the Express tomorrow. He's not even going to let us finish out the year. Learning magic was the best thing I had going for me. I'm not good at anything else. He'll take our wands and break them. He won't let us talk to any of you." Ethan kept getting angrier and angrier and small flames started to lick his hands. He tried to push everyone away again but this Severus grabbed him in a hug.

"Calm down." Severus said coldly. Ethan let out a yell. "I'm not letting go of you until your eyes turn normal. Just calm down Ethan."

Ethan stopped struggling and Severus loosened his hold. Ripper grabbed Ethan when Severus let go and they both sat on the ground. Ethan was crying black tears though he didn't make any noise. Severus sat on the other side of Ethan and leaned his shoulder against his friend's. Lily sat close so she could hold Ethan's hand while Lydia sat next to Ripper. Remus sat next to Lily so he could hold Ethan's other hand. They stayed like that for several minutes. Finally Ethan's eyes were back to their normal color, though his cheeks were stained with black tears.

The group looked up as the sun was blocked by three bodies. James sneered, "Hey Rayne your mascara's running. Remus we've been looking everywhere for you."

"What's wrong with him, did he hear black nail polish was out fashion?" Sirius laughed at his own joke.

Before any of the Slytherins or Lily could say anything, Remus was standing. "Don't Sirius!" Remus's voice was barely above a whisper but it was filled with venom. "Leave him alone."

Sirius clapped Remus on the shoulder and smiled, "Oh come on Rem, we're just messing around. If he can't take it, he should go back home to his mommy."

"He just got a letter, his mum is dead." Remus hissed. Sirius shifted his weight as if he felt guilty. Then his stance went back to that of a cocky teenager. Remus spoke again before Sirius had a chance. "Don't Sirius. Just don't. I know you and I swear if you even attempt to open your mouth. So just don't."

"I'm sorry about your mum Rayne." James said quietly.

"Misters Rayne and Giles." The group of teenagers turned to see Dumbledore walking towards them. "Would you both please come to my office?"

Ripper stood up pulling Ethan along as well. Severus and the girls stood up also. Dumbledore led the way with Ripper and Ethan following behind him. The Gryffindor boys quickly moved aside so they could pass. Ripper glanced back to see everyone pretty much in the same place, just looking at them. Except Sirius, he seemed to have said something and Lily smacked him for it. Ripper turned to face forward again. Ethan was just staring ahead of him blindly.

No one said anything until they were in the headmaster's office. "Please have a seat boys." Dumbledore gestured to the two comfy chairs in front of his desk. Ripper and Ethan sat down and waited for him to speak again. Dumbledore took his own seat first, "Well, there's no easy way to say this—"

"My mum's dead. I know." Ethan interrupted him. "Now you don't have to say it."

Dumbledore paused at this. The boy in front of him now was so different then the Ethan he had seen for most of the year. "Well then allow me to offer my sincerest condolences. However that was not what I wanted to talk to you about. Your father owled me and it seems he wishes to remove you both from school permanently."

Ripper crossed his arms, "He does. We had one thing keeping us here and now it's gone."

"Would he be placing you in another magic school?" Dumbledore asked. Ripper shook his head no. "Well I am going to ask your father to come here so that I can try to convince him that he should continue your magical education."

"For all the good that'll do." Ethan muttered.

"You can try professor. But I doubt it'll do anything my father's very stubborn." Ripper amended.

"Still your education is very important even if you don't acquire it at this school." Dumbledore said. Neither Ethan nor Ripper responded to that. Dumbledore sighed, "Alright boys why don't you get going I'm sure your friends are worried about you."

"Yes Professor." Ethan and Ripper stood up and walked out. As they got off of the spinning gargoyle stair case they were met with the sight of a scowling Severus.

"Let's just go back to our room okay?" Ripper said as he began to walk back to the dungeons. Severus nodded and followed him making sure Ethan was coming along as well. They made it up to their dorm room without talking to anyone. Each boy sat on his own bed.

"You really are leaving aren't you?" Severus said after several minutes.

"Not by choice." Ripper commented.

"I just…" Severus scowled again.

"You think we want to go?" Ethan asked standing up. "This is the first school that we've, I've liked. With good friends, not to mention boyfriend." Ethan started pacing, "You know what forget this. I'm not going to spend my last night here moping. We're having a party. Ripper you've got people duty, invite people we like. Sevvy you've got food, convince the house elves to make us some scratch that, a lot of food. I've got some spare firewhiskey. Tell them it's theirs if they make us a feast."

"What are you going to be doing?" Ripper asked as Ethan walked towards the door.

"Setting up the party room, next floor down, biggest room. Be ready in hour."

---

An hour later, there was a party in full swing. There were about 25 people from each house, though there were mostly girls. Tables had been turned into couches and shoved against the wall. There was one long table that held mountains and mountains of food. In one corner was the music station, playing wizarding music and occasionally muggle music. Quite a few girls were dancing. In fact they were dancing in a circle around Remus and Ethan. Every once and a while they'd grab a different girl spin her around a couple times before going back to each other.

Ripper and Severus were sitting on one of the couches with Lydia and Lily sitting on either side of them. Though to be technically correct Lydia was sitting in Ripper's lap rather than beside him. They were surrounded by a handful of Gryffindor girls who were laughing loudly as Ripper was telling some of the pranks he had pulled in Durmstrang.

The various other students were having something to eat or just sitting in the couches talking. Although there were three Ravenclaws who had taken it upon themselves to take control of the music station.

Unbeknownst to any of the partying students, the headmaster of their school was standing outside of the room with the head of each house. "Shouldn't we stop this? It's after curfew." McGonagall said.

"Well it's not a school night." Flitwick added.

"And look how all the houses are interacting, I haven't seen something like this since I was in school." Melissa Gryphon, head of Hufflepuff, said.

"That's because Black and Potter aren't in there." Samoht muttered.

"What was that Tommy?" McGonagall cocked an eyebrow at her fellow professor.

Samoht smiled, "Nothing Minnie."

Dumbledore smiled sadly, "Let them have their party for a while. This may be Misters Rayne and Giles last night, let them have a night to remember."


	16. We Are Slytherins

Chapter 16: We're Are Slytherins

--------------------

"Masters Rayne and Giles, wake up. You must wake."

Severus rubbed his eyes as he sat up in bed. There was a little house elf trying to wake up Ripper and Ethan. He yawned as he got out of bed. He grabbed two pillows and chucked one at Ripper before slamming the other on Ethan's head.

Ripper sat up immediately, "Oi! Come on Sev it's the weekend."

"Yeah and this house elf wants your attention." Severus said before sighing and shoving Ethan out of bed.

Ethan managed to get himself untangled and glared at Severus, "I was waking up I just needed a minute."

The house elf bowed in Severus's direction, "Thank you very much Master Snape. Headmaster needs to see Masters Rayne and Giles."

Ethan stood up, "Why?" The house elf gave what looked like a shrug and then disappeared.

"Dad." Ripper whispered. Then he started scrambling for clothes. Ethan quickly began searching for clothes as well.

Severus sat back down on his bed, "He's here already?"

"He likes to be early to everything. Punctuality is key." Ripper rolled his eyes at the last part. Ethan began muttering at that, in Latin. Ripper hurriedly yanked his sweater over his head, "Okay Eth, that's physically impossible and very wrong. I can't even begin to say how wrong that was. So stop talking and grab your jacket."

"So this is it then? You guys are going?" Severus said nearly pouting.

Ripper pulled Severus off the bed and into a hug, "Not yet Sev. Do us a favor. Get the girls and meet us in front of the castle."

Ethan pushed Ripper away from Severus, "And Remy. Send Lily or Lydia to get him. Don't worry luv, we'll see you again."

Ripper was at the door, "Probably in fifteen minutes, so get moving."

Ethan smiled and quickly followed his step brother out the door. They made their way to the Headmaster's office without speaking to each other. Ethan paused when they reached the gargoyle. "I can't do this." He turned away from the statue, "I think I'll just go hide with one of the girls."

"I don't think so little Ethan." A man in his twenties stepped out from the shadows and grabbed Ethan by his collar.

"Travers! Get off of him!" Ripper moved forward to help but his arm was grabbed by another man. "Post. Figures Father would bring his two lap dogs." Ripper grunted as Post twisted his arm behind his back.

"Still haven't learned to control your tongue I see." Post said.

"Still haven't learned to think with your own mind I see." Ripper shot back. Post twisted his arm further making Ripper hiss in pain. "You think up that all by yourself."

Ethan kept trying to get out of Travers' hold, "Come on it's time to see daddy. Chocolate frogs." Travers said before dragging Ethan onto the rising staircase.

"Move it." Post shoved Ripper onto the stairs as well. As the steps were rising upward Post let go of Ripper's arm and instead put his hand on the boy's shoulder. The door opened to Dumbledore's office and Travers dragged Ethan in followed by Ripper and Post.

"They were loitering outside sir." Post said. Ripper made a dog sound under his breath.

Before Post could do anything Mr. Giles turned around. He basically glared at his step son however his gaze slightly softened when he looked at his son. Dumbledore stood up, "If you could all take a seat please."

Ripper yanked his arm from Post and Travers let go of Ethan's collar. Ethan took the chair furthest from Mr. Giles so that Ripper was in between them. Post and Travers chose to stand by the door after looking at Mr. Giles for confirmation. Mr. Giles sat down when Dumbledore took his seat.

"As I was saying Headmaster, I do not appreciate being called here. I am in charge of these boys' education, magical or otherwise. And if I choose to pull them out of this school than that is my decision." Mr. Giles said calmly, his voice never rising.

Dumbledore nodded, "I understand that however, your sons seem to be under the impression that they will not be continuing their magical education at all and I wanted to clear this up. You are aware that children who do not graduate from a magic school are not permitted to use a wand as an adult?"

Mr. Giles held out his hand to the side palm up. "Boys."

"No please." Ethan said.

"Dad come on." Ripper pleaded.

"Travers. Post." Mr. Giles said. Travers and Post came up behind the two boys and grabbed their wands. Travers had to have Post help him to get Ethan's wand. They handed the two wands to Mr. Giles.

"Mr. Giles—" Dumbledore hadn't made a move since the boy's wands were taken but his usual twinkle had gone out of his eyes. The crack of the young wizards' wands made him stop.

Mr. Giles dropped the four pieces of wood on Dumbledore's desk and stood up, "Now it's none of your concern. It was a poor decision to have a child of the Watcher's Council go to a magic school. Our worlds do not mix and they never will. And now Headmaster Dumbledore, I'm taking these boys and leaving. Please make sure their things are on the carriage." Mr. Giles went to the door, "Come along boys." Neither Ethan nor Ripper made a move to get up, they just stared at their broken wands. "Rupert! Ethan! Post, Travers assist them please."

Travers went to get Ethan first but the boy shoved him away. "Don't touch me you overgrown ape!"

At that Ripper stood up as well and stood in front of Ethan pushing him against the desk. "We can walk all by ourselves. We don't need your help."

"Then get moving." Travers said. Rupert glanced back at Ethan and then started forward. Ethan followed him making sure to stay away from Travers. They all left the Headmaster's office leaving Dumbledore alone. He smiled as he looked at the now empty patch on his desk.

Ethan and Ripper led the way out of the castle in silence. Their father was a few steps behind them and his two lap dogs a step behind him. They quickened their pace to reach the four figures standing at the entrance of the castle.

Lydia stepped forward first. "I'll miss you guys. It won't be the same without you." She hugged Ethan first, then Ripper also giving him a peck on the lips. "Your dad don't look so tough I could take him and the two behind him."

Lily grabbed Ethan and Ripper in a hug, "I'll watch over Severus for you. Owl me if you ever need anything."

Mr. Giles stopped about 5 feet away from his sons and his friends. He crossed his arms but made no move to stop them.

Ripper and Ethan moved over to Severus. Ethan hugged Severus and gave him a peck on the lips. Mr. Giles frowned at that but stayed in place. "Don't go all anti-social once we leave okay Sev?"

"You called me Sev. Wow the world may be ending as we know it." Severus deadpanned.

"Once in a lifetime angel, never again." Ethan stepped back to let Ripper in.

Ripper hugged Severus as well. "I'm going to miss you Sev. When you go back to our room look under your pillow, we left you a surprise."

Ethan meanwhile had moved over to where Remus was hanging back. "So I guess this it then?"

Ethan shrugged, "Maybe."

"Look I… I mean… I… I don't know what to say." Remus stuttered.

Ethan smirked, "Then don't say anything." He grabbed Remus around the neck and pulled him for a kiss. One that chaste could be used as an antonym for.

Mr. Giles immediately went over yanked Ethan away from Remus, "You little poofter." He backhanded his step son across the face making Ethan fall to the ground. "It's a good thing I didn't let your mother talk me into giving you the family name. It would have been dragged through the mud by now." Mr. Giles grabbed the front of Ethan's shirt and pulled him up by it. He raised his hand again, "However—"

He found four wands shoved in his face as Ethan was pulled away from him by Ripper. "Don't you dare touch him again!" Severus growled. "I will hex you into oblivion."

Mr. Giles raised an eyebrow, "Oh that's cute." He gestured for Post and Travers to stay where they were when they attempted to move forward.

He started to put his hand in pocket when Dumbledore seemed to appear out of nowhere. "No! No! No! Mr. Giles please stop!"

"Then control your pupils Headmaster." Mr. Giles said calmly.

"Put your wands away." None of the kids moved a muscle. "Now children!" Dumbledore said.

"But Professor you didn—" Lydia started to say.

"Lydia put your wand away please." Ripper said.

"I would listen to my son he knows something that you don't." Mr. Giles said. Lydia slowly lowered her wand. "Good girl, now the rest of you." Lily and Remus put their wands away about the same time.

Ethan placed a hand on Severus's arm. "Sevvy please you don't understand."

Severus looked pointedly at the blood on Ethan's face, "What is there not to understand?"

He took a step closer and Mr. Giles grabbed his collar, "Don't push it boy."

Severus gripped his wand tighter, "I think I understand perfectly."

"No you don't," Ripper stepped forward. "You know why Professor Dumbledore came running down here to stop you guys? You know what is in my father's pocket? It's a spelled herb. It will make you a squib for a day, a week; maybe indefinitely it differs with each person." At that Remus, Lydia, and Lily all backed away quickly but Severus didn't move. "So please, Sev put your wand away."

Severus didn't do anything for a moment. "Fine." He shoved his wand back in his pocket.

"Now that that's settled we will be going." Mr. Giles resumed walking toward the carriage that waited outside with Ethan still in his grip. Travers and Post came behind Ripper and they each grabbed one of his arms. Mr. Giles got into the carriage first then Ethan and Ripper. Post and Travers were the last in and they slammed the door closed behind them.

The four children watched as the carriage jumped forward. Lydia's arms were crossed over her chest and she was muttering under her breath. Remus just looked sad, like his puppy had died. Lily was leaning against Remus. She wasn't sobbing per say but there were tears falling down her cheeks. Severus just waited until the carriage was gone from sight then he left as well. He walked quickly enough that his robes swirled around him. The other three children did not notice him leaving. Dumbledore did, but merely shook his head in sadness.

Severus made his way back to his room. It looked empty again, once again only his fourth of the room was full. Severus sat down on his bed and sighed. He was all alone again and no longer used to the quiet. He flopped back on his bed with his head on his pillow. Severus laid there for a moment. Then his hand slid under the pillow and came back out with an envelope. It was pure black and it almost looked like his name had been burned into it. Ethan's work no doubt.

Severus looked at the envelope for a long time. Then he slowly opened it and pulled out a piece of parchment. 'We are Slytherins. We can survive anything thrown our way with grace and cunning. And most importantly we are masters of the art of escape.' Severus gave a small smile. He was folding the parchment when he noticed something written on the back. 'Check your top drawer'

Severus put the parchment and envelope down before moving to his bureau. There was a book he had never seen before in his drawer. The cover read 'Potions and Spells to Keep Your Enemies in Check.' He opened up the book and laughed as he saw the first spell.

How to Make Your Enemies' Clothes Disappear

---

The End

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read this story. I know it took a while to get it all out, two years to be exact. I hope it was worth the wait and well enjoyed by all.


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